


A lion among wolves

by sarcasmismyweapon



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alpha Derek, Alpha Derek Hale, Alpha Scott, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Creature Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, Injury, Injury Recovery, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Medical Examination, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Pack Feels, Protective Pack, Recovery, Torture, Were-Creatures, Werewolf Hunters, hunters are assholes, thebite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2019-09-20 11:43:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 32
Words: 261,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17022009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Stiles would like to say that douchebag hunter is a foreign concept for him, but that would be a lie. He's had one too many encounters with them to think anything good about them (Chris and Allison aside of course). This belief is only solidified when he's kidnapped and tortured, used as bait to draw the pack out. When Stiles is injected with something to make his heartbeat undetectable to the pack while simultaneously paralyzing him Stiles is left to the mercy of the hunters while waiting for his pack to and rescue him. Funny how the same thing they injected him with would be the thing that would ultimately take the choice away from him, he should have just taken the bite. It would have been a hell of a lot simpler than turning into a Bastili.





	1. A night out

**Author's Note:**

> So I've had this thing done for a while now, just never got around to editing/posting. It's time that happened, so I'll be editing all the chapters and posting them. I normally post new chapters/new works all on Sundays, but I can't guarantee a new chapter every week for this fic since the chapters are so long and I have other series that I'm actively posting. However, there will be a minimum of two chapters a month, that I can promise. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy the fic and if so, please leave a kudo or even better a comment.

Stiles laughed at Scott’s comment about the latest monster they had dealt with, the rest of the pack were at ease alongside them. Spread throughout Derek’s new loft, the Alpha finally having gotten the hint that his old ran down death trap (Stiles words) wasn’t a suitable place to live. It took a bit, but Derek finally settled on the work in progress that they were lounging in. Stiles couldn’t help that the moment he stepped into the place he had to point out to Derek what an opportunity he had, what surmounted as a cabin in the woods and that it wouldn’t really be a cool house until he could say he hid a body there. No one else had found that funny but Scott, then again Stiles wasn’t sure they had seen the movie so that was more on them than him. Since then Stiles had done his best not to comment on the Alpha’s choice in decorations (or lack thereof).   
  
The pack meetings had started taking place at Derek’s new loft the moment that he’d fixed the floors, again it wasn’t Stiles fault that he stepped through a part of one. The place was a work in progress, but that had been a while ago. Now they could lounge in the nearly empty room spread out on the Alpha’s furniture and relax, talk about the latest fugly they’d dealt with that had been snacking on the few tourists Beacon Hills had. When Stiles looked over he found that the older alpha was even smirking a little at the younger alpha’s retort about the creature’s demise. Normally blood and gore weren’t topics of discussion, but this particular baddie had made the ultimate mistake in trying to take down their pack all in one furious attack after they had prevented it from snacking on some poor saps that had crossed its path, planning obviously hadn’t been its strong suit. A blitz attack was something that would never work, they were stronger together and the proof of that was the fact that the latest baddie had been burned to ashes that were scattered in the woods while the pack celebrated their recent win.   
  
Stiles couldn’t help but yawn at the late hour, causing the rest of the pack to smirk at the normally energetic youth’s display of tiredness. Sighing upon realizing he’d been caught Stiles glowered at them all before barking out at them. “Don’t say a word.” He pointed a finger towards the beta’s who weren’t even trying to hide their own amusement.   
  
Scott snorted at his friend's lame attempts to forestall the inevitable before saying. “Go home dude, your beat.”   
  
Stiles gave the Alpha a pleading look, but Scott held firm. Sighing the human glanced to Derek to see if he could get the other Alpha on his side. The man in question raised a brow at him before shaking his head.   
  
“You guys suck...Fine, I know when I’m not wanted...I’ll just go home and stay up all night just to spite you all.”   
  
Scott rolled his eyes at his melodramatic friend, the beta’s of the pack were chuckling at the teen's dramatic claims that they didn’t love him and that he’d somehow manage to stay awake when it was obvious he was dead on his feet. Ignoring their friend’s ranting Erica cut the boy off abruptly.   
  
“We’ll see you tomorrow Stiles, go home and get some rest hmm?”   
  
The human had gone silent when Erica cut him off and had a frown on his face for all of a second before Stiles nodded his head to Erica as he climbed to his feet. The teen waved to them before heading for the door.   
  
“Drive safe.”   
  
The human snorted back at Scott before yelling back as he walked out the door. “My jeep won't fail me, it loves me, unlike you bastards.”   
  
The pack laughed at the human's retort as it was common knowledge that the vehicle in question could and would fail the human at the least opportune moment. Scott shook his head as he saw his friend leave. Instead of a conversation being struck up by the remaining members of the pack, they all sat quietly. Waiting. They heard the distinct sound of the jeep starting before it drifted down the drive and with that apparent signal the pack smirked.   
  
“Well, at least it started tonight.”   
  
Isaac comment idly, the others nodded their heads at that.  It wasn’t uncommon for one of them to have to either jump-start the jeep or give the boy a ride home. Scott shook his head before muttering. “If it wasn’t for the fact that it belonged to his mom, he’d get a new car.”   
  
“That’s why he keeps it? I thought it was just stubbornness because it keeps breaking down on him and he hates admitting defeat.” As an afterthought, the girl muttered. “One of these days he’s going to get stuck somewhere.”   
  
“His mom died when he was ten, its something that was hers that he got to keep. I think he just keeps it despite how often it breaks down because of that.” Scott shrugged. “He doesn’t really talk about it all that much, the sheriff doesn’t either.”   
  
“They don’t talk about a jeep.” Isaac’s tone showed how stupid that seemed to the beta.   
  
“It’s more about his mom,” Scott replied. “There was a while where you couldn’t even mention her name in their house...It’s gotten better actually.” The Alpha shrugged his shoulders, he had grown up with Stiles and it was second nature to know all of this. The pack, of course, hadn’t and it became clear when they didn’t understand some of his best friends motivations.   
  
“So he’s just gonna keep breaking down?” Isaac questioned.   
  
“If he hasn't’ given up on it yet then he’s not going to get rid of it, I saw him duct tape part of the hood.” Erica laughed.   
  
“He doesn’t have the money to keep pouring cash into the repairs it needs.” Scott groused. “How many times has he used the damn thing as a battering ram? He’s damaged the thing countless times because of the crap that happens here. It’s not a big surprise that it's got so many issues, I’d rather he use the jeep rather than himself when it comes to the things we fight.”   
  
Scott’s tone left little room for argument about the vehicle and the Beta’s seemed to pick up on that when they lowered their heads a bit in submission. Derek shook his head at the rising tension, before breaking up the warring werewolves by telling the pack. “We’re done for tonight. Get home safe, we’ll meet back up tomorrow night and figure out a new training schedule for when you go back to school.”   
  
After the latest batch of murdering monsters, the pack had begun to figure out some kind of training regime. They’d yet to nail down a schedule though due to their differentiating schedules colliding with what time they could actually devote towards said training. Luckily, the break from school had given them some time to train without fear of making their grades suffer, but the closer they got to school resuming meant that a new plan would have to be thought up. With their business concluded for the night the group slowly disbanded, the Betas leaving now that they had been dismissed by their Alpha. Only Scott stuck around after the Beta’s had left to speak with his fellow alpha.   
  
“Think we might get a break from all the supernatural freaks coming out of the woodwork?”   
  
Derek snorted at that before stating. “Not likely...This is Beacon Hills.” The chances of nothing going wrong were slim to none, there would always be something out there that wanted the power that radiated from the town. It wouldn’t do any good to think about it now, Derek shook his head before telling his fellow alpha. “Go home Scott, we’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”   
  
Smirking at the older alpha, the teen werewolf nodded his head and headed for the door. “See you tomorrow Derek.”   
  
Derek gave a nod of his head, bidding the boy goodnight without actually having to speak. He frowned when he heard Scott’s laughter while muttering about Derek’s penchant for refusing to talk.   
  
************************   
  
Stiles hummed to himself as he drove along, he was nearly out of the forested area that surrounded Derek’s little clubhouse as he liked to refer to it. The expansive property went on for miles, giving the werewolf privacy from the hustle and bustle of town. Being so far out of town, the pack had to choose wisely which way they came and went so as to not draw attention to their activities, the last thing any of them wanted was for other supernaturals or worse hunters to figure out they were there. Stiles liked to take the back roads sometimes, it was peaceful and there was no chance of traffic. He knew that Scott thought he was stupid for taking the more treacherous winding paths, but Stiles loved it. It gave him a chance to think. Soon he’d be entering the town’s borders, he was only another fifteen minutes from home when as he rounded a corner the human yelled in surprise.   
  
Stiles slammed his foot on the brake, his tires squealing on the pavement as the accelerated car tried to stop on a dime. It didn’t work. Before he knew it the human was being tossed around the cabin of his vehicle as the tire broke away under the strain as the human twisted his steering wheel to try and avoid the obstruction in the road. As soon as the tire gave, the vehicle was rolling. Stiles crashed into the steering wheel and the driver's side window, thrown about but saved from being ejected by his seat belt. The vehicle finally skidded to a stop upside down, leaving the human dangling from his seat belt.   
  
Groaning the bloodied youth blinked owlishly around himself to try and figure out what had happened. His head was foggy, his body ached and he was having problems focusing. Stiles jerked when his door was suddenly torn from the vehicle, the damaged hinges easily giving way to whoever was trying to get at the boy. Stiles twisted his head about to see who had managed to tear the door free. Idly wondering if one of his friends had come upon him, but that didn’t feel right. He’d only just left the house, how would they be there so fast? The blood dripping into his eyes made seeing the blurry figure even harder, but when the figure knelt down Stiles eyes widened as his head cleared just enough for him to realize what he was seeing.  Instead of a concerned face of one of his pack or even the smaller chance of seeing one of his father's deputies A familiar crest adorned the man’s vest. A hunters crest. The only hunters in beacon hills were the Argent family, or at least they were the only ones supposed to be there. Stiles could remember avidly asking the older hunter about the various crests that came with all the different hunting families, Chris had been kind enough to give him a crash course in the main families. The crest Stiles foggy mind was seeing wasn’t one of the families Chris had spoken well of.   
  
“Hello Stiles, that was quite an accident you had there. Let us help you out hmm?”   
  
Unsure what was going on, the youth gave a slow shake of his head only to pause when it increased the pounding in his skull, the threat of losing his last meal rising. Breathing carefully for a second, Stiles was able to recover enough to ramble through his thick tongue. “I’m good...No need to worry, just call my dad... You know the sheriff.”   
  
The man grinned at him, chuckling as if he thought the whole thing was funny before shaking his head. “No no, that won't do...After all, how are we supposed to find out about your little furry friends? You have to play along Stiles, you want to play the game don’t you?”   
  
Stiles heart beat faster in his aching chest, the pounding in his head growing as his shaky vision made his eyes have to strain to focus on the man. “Don’t-”   
Stiles tried to warn them away from whatever it was they had planned, the pack wouldn’t take kindly to these hunters messing with him let alone encroaching on their territory. The teenager never got to finish his warning however before he was suddenly cut free from his seat belt and forcefully yanked from the vehicle, the weight of his own body had him crashing to the top of his upside down jeep before he was yanked from the vehicle itself. Stiles head being slammed against the outside of the jeep as the man leered at him.   
  
“Oh look at you, quite a mess… That was a nasty accident you had there.” The lie in the man's concerned tone made Stiles swallow, men who talked like that tended to be assholes. Stiles was just proven right when the man got once more in his face. “Best to leave a little evidence to prove your still alive right? Wouldn’t want those wolves of yours getting the wrong impression now would we?”   
  
The man smirked even as he whipped out a rather deadly looking blade from his side, how he managed to bend while wearing the thing Stiles didn't know. Stiles swallowed down the saliva pooling in his mouth, idly the dizzy teen wondered if throwing up on the man could possibly make his situation worse. He thought it could so Stiles did his best not to do that, his situation was bad enough.   
  
Shaking his head at the sight of the blade, the boy rambled. “I’ll scream...They’ll-”   
  
  
Stiles winced when he was bashed against his jeep once more. The man’s face creeping way too close for comfort and causing Stiles to pull back as much as he was able while still in the man’s grasp. “Oh please, please do scream for us Mr. Stillinski. You’ll be making our job all the easier. Your pain, your fear...All of that will call out to them. A delicious cocktail that’ll send them into a frenzy.”   
  
Stiles clamped his mouth shut upon hearing the man’s point, he wasn’t wrong. If the pack caught wind of him they’d come running and Stiles had no way of knowing how many hunters were out there. He couldn’t really see past the goon holding tight to him, his vision was barely holding it together as it was. The only real thing Stiles realized was that he didn’t want to give into the man’s ploy. Swallowing against the bile in his throat, Stiles found his voice.   
  
“Go fuck yourself.”   
  
Though it only took him a moment for Stiles foggy brain to realize that speaking like that to the hunter might not be such a good idea. Any regret he had about his choice was cast aside as it seemed he had played into the hunters sick fantasy. The hunter smirked upon the boy's refusal. “No? Alright then, but if we’re going to play I should probably explain the rules right? It's only fair...Let's get back to the game then shall we?”   
  
The blade came nearer to him and Stiles, the teen couldn’t help but flinch when he felt the cold blade sliding against his skin. Surprisingly the blade didn’t tear into him rather his shirt, making a nice cut that created an easy tear for the hunter to use when stripping him of his shirt. It was once his shirt was removed that Stiles caught sight of other figures, he didn’t know if they’d been there the whole time or if they were just showing up. His brain still too foggy from the head wound to allow him to access his memory, in the end, it didn’t matter as the hunter’s friends came forward and pulled the tattered shirt from him. One raised it to his nose, making Stiles grimace at the notion that the man was smelling him. Stiles wasn’t a wolf, but he knew what scenting was and this hunter was effectively doing the same thing. It was wrong. The man pulled the shirt away before nodding to their leader.   
  
“Smells like him, the wolves shouldn’t have a problem figuring out what's going on.”   
  
Nodding his head, the man smirked at Stiles before saying. “I do apologize for this, but it is necessary I’m afraid. You see fear and pain make a rather potent mix and your wolves will be chomping at the bit to try and save you once they catch a whiff.”   
  
  
Stiles had barely gotten his mouth open to question what the man meant when he was sucker punched in the side of his face. His head rebounding from the jeep behind him as he spat blood onto the cold metal. Stiles was well on his way to slumping to the ground, groaning from the additional blow to the head but Stiles never made it to the ground as two men lifted him back up. The men stood on either side of him, each bracing his arms away from him holding him still for whatever else their leader had in store for him.   
  
The bastard in charge of the little meeting was smirking at the sight of Stiles, not seeming to be repulsed by the abuse the boy had already endured. In fact, he seemed far more amused at the notion of the boys suffering.    
“Now I want you to do something very important...Wolves like your little friends can smell emotions I’m sure you're aware of this. In order to make this all go the way we want it to we need to add a little tinge of fear to the shirt of yours, we’re borrowing.”   
  
If Stiles hadn’t been suffering from a head wound, the teen would have pointed out that cutting his shirt off meant they weren’t borrowing it. Not to mention that at this point he could have cared less about them keeping it. He never got the chance as the hunter continued to regale him with what they needed from him.   
  
“ We’ve got the blood now.” He grinned at Stiles as if the boy had actually actively participated in the collection of his own bodily fluids before continuing. “Thank you for being cooperative, but I figured the best way to get a good sense of fear from you is to give you a reason to fear me...So I’m going to make you a promise Stiles and I’m sure you realize how serious a hunter’s word is.”   
  
Stiles glared through bloody vision but nodded his head just once to show he understood what was being said to him, even as the world tilted around him the teen listened carefully. Whatever he heard might mean something in the future, it might help him or the pack. The hunter leaned overcrowding the injured boy's space, holding up his blade once more before stating.   
  
“No matter what I do to you Mr. Stillinski I want you to know that it can get worse, it will get worse. Until I have what I want, you will be the sole participant in my game. For your sake, I would hope your wolves join in sooner rather than later and I want you to know with all your heart, that what happens from here on out is entirely your fault.”     
  
The maniac grinned, his lips pulled tight against bright white teeth as he allowed his blade to skim the teen's naked chest. “Now that you understand what is at stake, let me tell you about my game. You’re the bait Mr. Stillinski, the mouse that has to be chased by the cat...Granted its wolves, but tomato tomaato.” The man shrugged with his ever-present grin, pulling the knife away from Stiles chest he tapped it against his lips while in thought.   
  
Stiles took a few half-hazard breaths now that there was no chance of being cut. The hunter hummed a moment before staring down at him. Stiles licked his lip, scrunching up his face when he tasted his own blood, the action seemed to amuse the man. Far sooner than Stiles would have liked the man's knife came back to tap on his chest idly while the hunter informed him.   
  
“So, this is what's going to happen you’re going to come with us and be our bait and while we wait for your wolves to join in on the fun I’m going to drag every last little secret they have out of you.” The man’s knife trailed along his chest, up his throat and finally rested on his lips. “And if you don’t talk...Well, I can always cut out your tongue if you aren’t going to use it. Once your wolves begin their hunt of you we’ll change up the game a bit...But we’ve still got time to work on those little details. All you really need to know is that you're going to lead those precious wolves of yours to their deaths by bringing them straight to me and at the end of the game...I’ll be the winner.”   
  
Stiles eyes widened at that, the man's words were enough for Stiles to deduce what he really meant. This maniac and his goons were going to harm anyone who got in their way, that could include his father. It would include his father Stiles realized, once the pack started searching for him they’d call everyone. His father and the Argents would come to aid of the pack. Everyone was in danger and there wasn’t anything Stiles could do to change that. He wasn’t strong enough, his vision was murky at best, his limbs were limp in his captors hold...He didn’t hold a candle to him being able to run, let alone outrun the hunters. All Stiles could do was shake his head at the maniacs growing smile, somehow Stiles found his pain laced voice to speak.   
  
“They won't play your game.” He rasped. “They’ll come for me and when they do, they’ll rip you apart.”   
  
The teen cried out in pain when his arm was twisted behind him by one of the man’s lackeys, no doubt in punishment for speaking as he had. Stiles grunted when soon found his stolen shirt pressed up against him, the torn cloth was rubbed against his sweaty skin. The blood from his injuries had enough blood dripping onto his chest to leave a red smear across him as the discarded shirt was swiped across him. Stiles glared at the man in front of him, the leader of the little hunting party. When the man pulled the shirt away to stare at it, he seemed displeased by something, no sooner than had Stiles had that thought than did the man look up to one of the men holding Stiles and nod.   
  
Not a second later Stiles screamed when his arm was twisted farther behind him at an odd angle, pressure increased along the strained limb until a loud pop was heard which had Stiles jerking forward a bit as his shoulder dislocated. Pain lanced out from the joint even as the man continued to hold the limp arm behind him as Stiles sagged against them panting, tears rolling down his face as the urge to vomit returned. All his weak brain could process was that a hunter had grasped his arm and twisted to the point of his shoulder popping free from its socket with such ease one would think he’d been popping a balloon instead of his shoulder joint.    
  
Stiles whimpered even as his stolen shirt was once more forced against him, soaking in the scent of his pain by absorbing the fresh trails of cold sweat forming from the boy's pain. When it was removed the leader went through the same process as before, smelling the piece of cloth. Pulling it away from his face the leader smirked triumphantly before nodding to his friends.   
  
“I think we're done, for now, let's get going before one of those animals tracks his car down.”   
  
The leader turned his attention to a quietly sobbing Stiles who was slumped in his men’s arms and shook his head. “You should have known, nothing good comes from running with wolves.”   
  
Stiles looked up just in time to see the man’s fist coming down to crash into his face. He was out before his body hit the pavement.   
  
  
***************************   
  
It was far too early the next morning when Scott woke to his phone going off. Frowning he reached over and batted around with his hand to find the device when he managed to snatch it off of his dresser he glanced at the caller ID and scrambled to pick it up. Scott’s eyes squinting at the bright light coming through his bedroom window, just as he was answering the call Scott wondered why the sheriff was calling him instead of Stiles.   
  
“Hello?” His voice roughened from his rude awakening.   
  
“Scott?” The man’s voice was panicked and it had the wolf sitting up in bed, his brow furrowing as he took in the man’s strange vocal pattern.   
  
“Sheriff?”   
  
“Have you seen Stiles? I thought he was going with you guys up to Derek's last night? Did he crash with you?”   
  
  
The series of questions took a while to process as he was still waking, but the wolf finally shook his head before finding his voice enough to answer. “He did go to the loft with us, we...He left like an hour before everyone else...Just after midnight. He’s not at home?” It was odd to think that Stiles wouldn’t leave a note for his dad if he was going somewhere, though Scott had to remind himself of how often they’d snuck out in the past. The only problem was that was the past, the sheriff knew about everything so there wasn’t much reason to sneak around anymore.   
  
Scott heard the sheriff curse before the man said. “ He never made it home then...His jeep’s not here and there’s no note. His bed’s still made.”   
  
Scott blinked as he tried to wrap his brain around that, Stiles wasn’t one for cleanliness and if his bed was still made then he hadn’t slept in it...The sheriff was the only one who attempted to keep his friends room in any semblance of order. Stiles wouldn’t leave without his jeep of course so there wasn’t anything odd there, but no note being left was. “ Have you tried calling him?” Scott winced when he realized how stupid that sounded.   
  
“He didn’t answer, it went straight to voicemail.” There was a bit of annoyance lacing the man’s tone now, but Scott figured that was directed towards the man's son and not himself.   
  
Scott frowned when he heard that his friend wasn’t answering his phone or rather that his phone was off, Stiles always kept it charged because of all the shit they got into. He’d had it on him last night because he’d been texting with Isaac despite being in the same room. The two of them claiming it was the only privacy they could get for conversations, they weren’t wrong. Shaking his head Scott assured the man. “I’ll double check with the pack, maybe he got detoured.”   
  
“Thank you, I’m going to send out a deputy to try and find his jeep… He probably broke down somewhere and slept in it again.” The man joked, but Scott could hear the nerves in the man's voice. “If you hear from him please-”   
  
“I’ll call sir, as soon as I hear anything...Let me know if you find him. I can round up the others and we can search for him.”   
  
The sheriff sighed before stating. “Yeah...Yeah call the others and ask around...I’ll call you back if we find anything.”   
  
“I’ll talk to you soon sir, we’ll find him.” Scott bit his tongue for a second before assuring the man. “He’s going to be okay.”   
  
“Yeah...Yeah okay.”   
  
The phone call ended and Scott stared down at the blank screen. He knew it was stupid, but he immediately dialed Stiles phone. It rang once and then promptly went to voicemail. Cursing Scott ended the call before sliding out of bed. Hastily throwing on some clothes before picking up his phone all while running downstairs as he dialed Derek. The other alpha picked up on the second ring.   
  
“Scott?”   
  
“Stiles is missing.”   
  
*************************   
  
It hadn’t taken long for Scott to call the rest of the pack and fill them in. They were just as concerned about Stiles disappearance as it wasn’t like Stiles to just up and disappear, especially not on his dad. The boy never made it home caused the wolves to wonder if his jeep had broken down as Scott theorized, but the boy's refusal to answer his phone seemed to negate that theory. Scott and the rest of the Beta’s were pulling up to Derek’s loft in their various vehicles when Scott’s phone went off. Derek had already come out of the loft to ask if they had seen anything only to pause with the rest of them and listen as Scott frowned.   
  
“You found it? Where?....Okay...Yeah I know where that is, we’ll be there soon. See if you can...You did? Okay...What? Yeah okay...Bye.” Scott hung up the phone and with a stony look said.   
  
“They found his jeep. He crashed, it rolled a couple times from what the sheriff said. There’s no sign of Stiles though. Sheriff wants us to see if we can find his trail.”   
  
“Did he leave it? Maybe he was taken to the hospital?” Erica was quick to glance between the two Alphas.   
  
Scott shook his head and frowned. “The sheriff said he’s already called the hospital, my mom would have called if Stiles had been admitted. He hasn’t been.” Taking a deep breath the teenager finally admitted what else the sheriff had said. “There’s was a blood trail...Not like he was going for help...Someone or thing was dragging him...The sheriff said it looks like it headed into the woods.” Despite the looming threat of vomiting at the notion of his best friend being dragged off by some monster hours ago, Scott assured them that they could do their own investigation. “The sheriff covered up the trail so the deputies wouldn’t go looking...He thinks this has something to do with us but he wouldn’t say why.”   
  
The group froze at that, Derek growled before barking out. “Let's go.”   
  
The group divided into two cars and were off, one car following the other as Scott lead the way to the apparent crime scene. The short drive took far longer than any of them would have liked, but finally, they pulled up a short time later to see the sheriff pacing back and forth just beyond a line of crime scene tape. The lack of officers had them wary but the group piled out of the cars and slowly approached the man who came running up to them and lifted the tape to allow them entry. He turned to them and with pleading eyes said.   
  
“He’s hurt Scott, there’s blood in the car and...The trail leads that way.” The man pointed towards the woods beyond the crashed vehicle. Scott and Derek nodded their heads before the younger alpha tried to console the man.   
  
“We’ll find him, just keep the deputies off our backs while we check things out.”   
  
The man nodded his head. “I sent them to the hospital to double check things while I wait for a tow truck.” By the tone of the man’s voice, the teens could tell he hadn’t called for one yet.   
  
Ushering them into the active crime scene, he led the small group over towards his son’s damaged vehicle before turning away. Noah couldn’t look anymore at the evidence of his missing son's accident. Derek and Scott growled at the sight of the jeep,  the vehicle was upside down, every window was either cracked or gone and the one whole axle of the vehicle had been torn away somehow. The driver's side door was hanging limply by a single hinge and there was a blood trail smeared down of the driver's side which told the story of Stiles being pressed against his own car after he was outside of it. Coming forward Scott knelt down and peered into the interior of the jeep.   
  
He glanced about before pulling back to tell them. “He took some hits when it rolled, but the bleeding wasn’t bad in there...It's not until he got out of the car that it got worse.” His tone alone implied that it wasn’t Stiles fault that his bleeding had worsened.   
  
Isaac was the one to point at the hinges of the jeep. “Someone nearly tore the door off.”   
  
The others glanced at where the Beta was pointing and nodded. It was true, the door had been wrenched away from its hinges and was now barely connected to the vehicle. There was no way for Stiles to have done that from inside the vehicle and despite their joking about the vehicle being held together by duct tape, they all knew that it would have taken considerable strength to wrench the door off its hinges.   
  
“So whoever was here pulled him out and then slammed him against his car again...And then took him into the woods? That doesn’t sound like something-”   
  
“It doesn’t matter why.” Derek enforced even as he took a deeper breath to scent the area. The scent of Stiles was all around them, his dried blood and the smell of the boys sweat clinging to the air even hours later. Derek stepped forward, glancing subtly towards the sheriff to see him anxiously waiting a few feet away before shifting to scent the air better. His red eyes glared at the blood stains, but his focus diverted to across the fallen jeep and into the woods. Even without the sheriffs help the Alpha could tell which way the boy had been taken.   
  
“Come on.”   
  
The pack didn’t ask questions, instead, they followed after Derek as he marched into the woods. Scott gave the sheriff a nod before calling out. “We’ll find him, wait here in case we need help.”   
  
The man nodded back before returning to pacing before his son’s broken down vehicle. Ordinarily, he would go darting through the woods himself. Nothing would have stopped him from searching out his son, but since finding out about the supernatural he’d come to realize that his police training wasn’t always enough. His best tool was to keep the police out of the pack's hair, prevent any arrests or scientific inquiries to the state the teens were often in. He’d put his faith into the pack, they’d find Stiles.   
  
Once they were far enough away from the road from anyone passing by to see them, the group shifted. Sniffing at the air to try and find the boys scent trail, it wasn’t hard to find with the initial trail of blood before them.   
  
“There’s no way he could stumble around up here, someone was forcing him.” Scott mentioned.   
  
It was stupid, but for some stupid reason, they had almost clung to the hope that he might have wandered off on his own, despite the evidence against it. With the boy's scent wafting through the air and the small trails of blood that seemed to be only disturbed by something dragging through it, it became clear what had happened. The pack walked for a ways until the blood trail ended, either from Stiles bleeding having stopped or some other force preventing the blood from hitting the ground below. Either way, it cut off a solid path for the wolves to follow.   
  
“Spread out and see if you cant follow his scent. Its been hours so it's going to be difficult the further into the forest he went. Howl if you find something, but stay close enough to see each other.”   
  
The group took off, keeping a gap between each pack member and sniffed along a straight path seeking out their fragile pack member.   
  
***************************   
  
Stiles groaned as he came around, a sharp slap had his head jerking from the force of the blow. As if his head wasn’t already throbbing with every beat of his heart, Stiles didn’t have it in him to state as much to whoever was hitting him.   
  
“Come on. If your going to whine about it you might as well be awake for the real fun.”   
  
Gritting his teeth the teenager pried open his eyes to squint at the blurry figure. A couple of blinks later the teenager’s vision focused just enough for him to make out the form of a man standing before him. The same crest that he had seen before being knocked unconscious swam into view alongside the man’s dark features. Despite how cliche it seemed Stiles could only take notice of how crazy the bastard was and the current state of the man’s hair. Stiles referred to it as crazy hair, none of the pack agreed about the correlation of hair to mental capacity. Stiles was beginning to hope they were right because if they were wrong then the man’s un-kept hair spoke of how unhinged he was and if that wasn’t enough the way his eyes glinted didn’t do him any favors. One did not need to be a genius to figure out this man had a few screws loose.   
  
  
“There we go, that’s a good boy.” He chastizing patted Stiles cheek as if he was a good dog.   
  
The small movement let Stiles know just how much pain he was capable of feeling, not only did it rock his head and make his vision swim a bit, but the motion managed to light the dull fire that had been roaring inside his shoulder. Yep, definitely still dislocated. It took Stiles a while to find his breath again, blinking slowly cleared his vision more for Stiles to recognize the man as one of the lackeys from the night before. More precisely the one who had dislocated his shoulder, he ignored that for a moment as he glanced about the room. There wasn’t a lot to see, just stone walls all the way around with a single door and no windows in sight. It was bleak at best, returning his focus on the crazed maniac in front of him Stiles asked.   
  
“Who-”   
  
“Who am I? Oh no worries about that, you should be worried about what's going to happen to you and your little friends. I’m really insignificant in the big picture here, unless you count the fact that I’m in charge of keeping you comfortable. You are comfortable aren’t you Stiles?”   
  
The man’s crazy grin was back and as if that wasn’t disconcerting enough the man’s words were. Stiles didn’t like the sound of that, so instead of answering the man, he focused on himself. He couldn’t see much from where he was strung up, not that his initial jaunt around the room had shown much to go off of but the fact that he was strung up was a big red flag. His arms pinned behind him to a chain link fence, another red flag. Stiles shifted a little and gasped as fire hot pain laced up his shoulder once more, in some dark stupid part of his mind Stiles had assumed that they had put it back in. He was wrong.   
  
“Oh yeah sorry about that, we never fixed your shoulder, did we?... My bad.”    
  
The man laughed at the teenager's pain. Stiles continued to gasp in short bursts as he tried to get a handle on the pain radiating from his dislocated shoulder.   
  
“Sure do wish you could just heal that don’t you? Too bad they didn’t give you the bite, you must not be all that important for that though...I mean who would want someone they consider a friend to remain human? You could actually join the pack instead of just being a burden and yet here you are, broken and bleeding. Its rather cruel don’t you think? Them just using you like that and now look at you, about to be tortured and killed because they didn’t love you enough to turn you into a murderous animal like themselves.” The grin on the man's face would have had anyone wanting to pull back, as it was Stiles had to fight the temptation. It would only bring him more pain and there wasn’t anywhere he could go so Stiles glanced up to his captor as he caught his breath.   
  
Despite knowing it wasn’t the smartest thing to do Stiles informed the man of what he thought while steeling himself for what his loud mouth might bring him before muttering. “You're crazy.”   
  
The man snorted at that before reaching forward to wrap his hand around the teenagers dislocated shoulder. Stiles cried out in pain as the man tightened his hand around the swollen joint. Stiles hadn’t thought it was possible to black out and vomit at the same time, but he was pretty sure that was what happened. At least for a second because it took a while for his eyes to blink and light to reach him. The sour taste in his mouth told him enough and if it didn’t the firey pain scorching his nerves did.   
  
“No Stiles, what's crazy is that you think that I’ll just sit here and let you bad mouth me. See I got free reign over you boy, I decide what and when something happens to you. I get to decide if you keep all your fingers and toes, cause I hate to break it to you those are optional at this point. I hate to spoil the surprise, but I have lots of toys that can make our time together...Fun.”   
  
The maniac’s grin only made the pain radiating his body all the worse, but the fact that the man licked his lips like he was getting aroused by causing him pain made Stiles' stomach twist in knots threatening to make him vomit once more. This was not a good situation to be finding himself in.   
  
Gasping through the pain Stiles gathered enough strength to whisper out. “Wolves.”   
  
The man smirked. “Oh there will be wolves won't there?” The man hummed as if considering what he should say. “They’ll come for you and they’ll walk right into our little trap and then...Well, then they’ll die. The real kicker is they’re going to walk into the trap willingly all for you. Those mutts aren’t going to know what hit them.”   
  
Stiles panted as the man finally pulled his hand back, the pain was slow to return to its prior level of fiery hell. The dwindling of his physical pain did nothing to sway how Stiles felt about what the man was rambling about. The pack would come for him, but that was what the hunters wanted.   
  
Looking into the man’s crazed eyes the teen solidified his courage and said in a no-nonsense tone. “They’ll kill you, they're going to rip you apart for this.”   
  
  
The man shook his head and with a long drawn out sigh informed Stiles. “No, see they won't because we’ve been doing this for generations now. A real family business we got here.” The man laughed like he was in on some kind of inside joke. “Do you know how many packs we’ve taken down? How many Alpha’s we’ve cut down? Your little bunch of monsters isn’t going to stand a chance against us and in the end, you’ll have to sit by and watch.”   
  
Stiles shook his head weakly. “You don’t know what you're talking about, the pack’ll kil-omph” Stiles winced as his face was jerked to the side as the man’s hand slapped him, sparking pain in his cheek and a sharp twinge in his shoulder.   
  
“I’d watch what you say, boy we know exactly what we're doing. You show us some respect and we might just make your death painless...Well, I shouldn’t say that I should say less painful.” The man grinned. “ No promises though.”   
  
Glaring at his captor, Stiles took some pride in himself when he managed to spit out some blood straight onto the man’s cheek. Smirking at the sight Stiles called out resiliently.  “My pack’s alpha’s are going to tear your throat out with their teeth.” Stiles grinned a bloody grin at the hunter.   
  
The man glared back at his display before shaking his head as he reached up to wipe the spittle from his cheek. “All you had to do was play along, play the game Stiles but if you want to make this harder on yourself...Far be it from me to stop you.” The man reached out snatching Stiles hair up in his fingers and yanking his head back while crowding in on the teen. “See the kicker here is I actually enjoy causing people pain, I know I know how horrible of me. I’m such a naughty boy, but the fact is the more pain you endure, the stronger the scent is. I’m sure you’re aware that the stronger your scent is, the wilder your mutts will go to try and save you.”   
  
As if thinking on it the man let go of Stiles to take a step back, staring down at his watch while Stiles let his head slump down to his chest. He was tired and hurt in ways he wasn’t even sure were physically possible, despite his body saying otherwise. He roused when the man hummed and addressed him once more.   
  
“I’m sure they’ll be coming along soon enough to the first clue we left them...Care to contribute to clue number two?”   
  
Stiles stared back at the man owlishly for a moment before wincing as the man balled up a fist and struck out slamming the boy's cheek and jerking him to the right. Stiles cried out, though not because of the punch to his face. Though that hurt too it was the jarring movement that tore at his bound shoulder that forced him to scream.   
  
“Yeah that’s right, cry out, beg, plead for your mutts to come and save you.”   
  
The next punch was harder than the last and sent pain blossoming across the boy's frame.   
  
  
*********************   
  
A howl issued to the left, it didn’t take long before the pack converged on Boyd, seeing the dark-skinned teen holding up something. The group came closer, Scott tearing the offending cloth from his pack mates hand. Scott sniffed it before balking at the scent clinging to the cloth. He passed it to Derek only for the other alpha to react the same.   
  
“It's Stiles.”   
  
Scott nodded his head. “That’s part of the shirt he was wearing.”   
  
“He’s scared.”   
  
Isaac muttered lowly as he shifted from foot to foot nervously. The others disregarded the teen’s claim, instead choosing to ask Boyd just where he found the cloth.   
  
“Over here” Boyd led them a short distance to a small log and gestured towards it.   
  
“It was snagged on the edge, made to look natural...Like he was running and it got caught.” The Beta shook his head. “It was faked.”   
  
Derek nodded his head at that. “Someone’s leading us on.”   
  
“But why? What’s the point of faking this?” Scott asked in frustration. “Why not just say they have him?”   
  
Derek shook his head before taking another sniff of the missing teen’s shirt. “There’s another scent here...Male.”   
  
Scott came forward to sniff at the cloth before nodding upon finding it. The stranger's scent was faint, masked over by his friends.   
  
“Is it human?”  Erica questioned.   
  
Scott frowned before nodding his head. “yeah...Seems like it.”   
  
“So a human took Stiles after he crashed his jeep.” Isaac stated factually. The others nodded towards the teen. “Did he really crash though? I mean if someone wanted to take him, they could have caused his crash right?”   
  
It was a thought that had their hearts sinking into their stomachs, was this a planned attack? Had someone really thought ahead to attack their human pack member in order to get to them? The others stared at the teen a moment before Scott spoke up.   
  
“He’s right...The timing is odd. He’d just left the house and was on his own. What are the chances of Stiles crashing his jeep? Someone had to have forced him off the road in order to take him, this was planned.”   
  
“Who would want Stiles though? And why?”   
  
The pack glanced towards Erica a moment before her quiet boyfriend spoke up interjecting anyone else's thoughts. “He left the pack meeting...He was with us.”   
Derek and Scott scowled at that before they looked at one another, their minds coming to the same conclusion.   
  
“He was targeted because of the pack.”   
  
“Possibly.” Derek didn’t want to go down that road, he knew where it led. The thought of hunters coming after his pack again made him want to snarl, he had to keep his head about him in order to protect the pack with him and retrieve Stiles. “Keep searching for more clues as to where he was taken...If he’s injured they couldn’t have gotten far.” Derek said authoritatively. The others spread back out, but Scott remained a moment.   
  
“What do you think?” The younger Alpha probed. “ I mean If it really is a human doing this...My first thought is hunters.”   
  
Derek stared coolly at him a minute before nodding, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Scott sighed and nodded. They’d had some previous run in’s with hunters who didn’t follow the normal code of ethics, but nothing had outright turned his bad. Having the Argents in town normally worked in their favor, but it was clear that something else was going on besides a random hunter coming to town.   
  
“If its hunters, they’ll keep Stiles alive.”   
  
Scott growled at Derek before stating in a grave tone. “He’s human. They shouldn’t be hurting him, it goes against their code.”   
  
Derek glanced to his fellow alpha before stating. “When has that mattered to them, Scott? The only hunters who we can possibly trust are Chris and Allison. Stiles is just a pawn, nothing more to them now come on, we need to keep searching. Knowing Stiles, he’s going to make himself more of an irritation than a hostage to them.”   
  
Despite the dire circumstances Scott snorted at that before trailing beside the alpha. “ His smart mouth is gonna get him hurt you mean.”   
  
Derek nodded his head. “We’ll find him, Scott, that’s what they want after all.”   
  
“But will he be in one piece?”   
  
Derek didn’t have an answer to that.


	2. The game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles attempts to escape the hunters, the pack continue their search for him. The hunters game shakes the pack to their core, leaving the hunters wondering if they might have miscalculated the pack's abilities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a chapter two weeks in a row, go me! Seriously, these are long chapters to be editing every week so don't count on getting a new chapter every week. Seeing as it's nearly Christmas I decided that I should post another chapter, everyone deserves presents XD.
> 
> Many thanks to those of you who are reading the fic, if you're enjoying it please leave a comment I love hearing from those who read my works.

Stiles was staring at the floor. He didn’t have the energy to lift his head up, not after the last beating he’d taken. His jaw felt like one giant bruise, he was sure that something was broken in it. Though he wasn’t a doctor, he figured the pains he was feeling were enough for a diagnosis of ‘got the crap beaten out of me’. Stiles would have laughed at his own joke, but he was in too much pain for that. Instead, the teen hung limply from the fencing they had him tied too.    
  
Blood was dripping from his nose and mouth, plopping in thick droplets onto his bare chest and the floor below. Stiles blinked at the droplets below him, his mind somehow creating pictures out of the drops. Like clouds, only it was made out of his own blood...He idly thought it was like some morbid form of connecting the dots. Stiles smirked only to whimper at the pain it caused him, something was definitely wrong with his face. It was best to remain as still as possible. To make as little noise as possible. If his captors realized he was awake, they’d start again.    
  
The beatings were bad, but some of the other ‘tactics’ the hunters were using were far worse. He was never going to question how powerful tasers were again. He truly understood how the wolves felt when being forced to hold their shifts while being electrocuted, he never wanted to feel the coursing fire of electricity going through him again. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The room he was in had no windows and other than a small hanging lightbulb a few feet away from his head, he had no great amount of light. It was dim and cold in the room. He shivered from time to time, though he dreaded each movement as his dislocated shoulder cried out its displeasure to each tiny hitch his body made.    
  
As his mind wandered he began to wonder if his friends knew he was missing, if they were already looking for him. As much as he’d like a werewolf rescue party right about now, he dreaded the possibility of them getting hurt on his behalf. Already the hunters had alluded to what they had planned. They hadn’t been lying when they said that Stiles would play a big part in their ‘game’. After beating on him for what had felt like hours, they’d rubbed fragments of his shirt against his sweaty skin before walking off laughing. Stiles knew they were using his scent, his blood against his friends and he hated knowing he was being used for such a thing.   
  
“Someone’s awake I see”   
  
Stiles didn’t move, if the man knew he was awake the torture would begin again, he might just be lucky enough to fake the man out if he stayed still. Really really still. Stiles body jerked spastically and his eyes rolled as the sudden electric current passed through him. A moment later it was gone just as fast as it had been introduced, the residual jerking of his body, however, was followed by a warning.   
  
“Don’t lie to me boy, you got yourself into this mess. You're going to have to deal with the consequences of associating with wolves.”   
  
Stiles gasped as his body struggled to get itself back in order. The cattle prod sparked just within his field of vision. Stiles couldn’t help but flinch as it drew near the fence he was lashed too. A small whimper leaving his strained throat.   
  
“You going to do as I say?”   
  
Stiles nodded his head as much as he was able too, only to arch as he was electrocuted once more. When the sharp vibrant pain faded after the charge was taken away he sobbed though he didn’t know if it was in relief or in pain.   
  
“I asked if you were going to do as I say?”   
  
He could barely utter a faint ‘yes’ his voice breaking as he tried to speak. The man seemed mollified by his attempt though because the cattle prod was taken away. Sighing in relief Stiles winced when the man got up in his face.   
  
“Its almost time for phase two”   
  
Stiles tried his best to look up into the crazed man’s eyes, but he didn’t have the strength to manage it, so he chose to listen. It didn’t take long before the man was telling him what was next. The psycho seemed to take great pride in what they were doing. Some small part of him wondered if all bad guys had to follow the cliche of ranting and raving at their victims. It seemed like a waste of time to him, but he read too many comics as it was. So what did he know?   
  
“We got your shirt strung all about the forest, irritate the hell outta your wolves, make em run in circles. Once we're through with that, we need something to draw them in closer...Something to really spice their pallette ya know? Best way to do that is to up the ante, make them feel the heat.”   
  
Stiles recoiled against the fence he was chained too, hissing as his shoulder protested the movement, but determined to try and get away from the man now holding a knife.   
  
“Need some blood, make their senses go nuts once they smell its fresh...And we’ve got something else cookin just for them.”   
  
Stiles jerked his head in a ‘no’ motion, but the man snorted and strode forward, brandishing the knife the man smirked at him before leaning forward.   
  
“This might sting a bit”   
  
The man laughed at his own humor as he slid the blade across Stiles’s stomach, cutting into the boy deep enough to draw a good flow of blood. Stiles hissed and whimpered as the blade dug into him only to sigh when it was at last pulled away. The pain changing forms, but never leaving him now that the damage had been done. He watched idly fascinated as his blood oozed into a bowl the man was holding against his flesh. Slowly the bowl began to fill. When the hunter was pleased with his collection of the boy's blood he put the bowl aside and regarded the boys bleeding stomach a moment before looking up into the boy's eyes.   
  
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you tried to play possum on me, but I did warn you about cooperating with us.”   
  
Stiles sucked in a breath, well aware of what was about to happen. No sooner had he managed that breath than did it come flying out of him as the man’s meaty fist slammed into his wounded stomach. Coughing Stiles spit out thick gobs of saliva which were tinged red from all the blood in his mouth. Stiles flinched when the man’s hand came to the back of his head as if to caress him, the hot breath of the hunter ghosted his face.   
  
“And that other thing I mentioned...Well, I’m sure your wolves won’t like what they hear.”   
  
The hunter laughed even as he shoved Stiles head back, gathering up the freshly spilled blood the man carried the bowl with him out into the rest of their hideout. Closing the door behind him, leaving Stiles utterly alone in a dank dark room. The boy caught his breath as best he could before raising his head.    
  
With his captor gone, he could continue his work towards escaping. He’d be damned if he just lay there and let this happen. Instead, Stiles tore at his hands, ignoring the biting sting of the wire cutting into his hands and wrists and the radiating fire in his shoulder as he shifted about. The stabbing sensation from his stomach was pushed aside just like the grating throbbing in his jaw. If he could get his hands free, his legs would be no problem. And from there he could scoop up the cattle prod lying by the wall and make a run for it. His plan wasn’t full proof by any means, but it was more than enough to keep the boy motivated to see his friends again before anything could happen to them.   
  
******************************   
  
They’d been hunting through the forest for what seemed like days, all in search of their missing pack mate. In reality, it had only been a few hours, but they were still no closer to finding Stiles. They’d soon found another scrap of the boys torn shirt, then another. By the time they found the fifth piece they realized they were being led all about the forest with no clear direction. It did nothing for their mood. With Stiles’s scent plastered all over the forest because of the decoy shirt scraps, they had no clear direction to go. They had stopped to catch their breath a moment, the scraps of cloth bunched up in their fists.   
  
“They’re doing this on purpose.”   
  
“Who?”   
  
So far the two Alpha’s hadn’t relayed their belief as to who was responsible for Stiles disappearance, but with their running around in circles it appeared it was time.   
  
“Hunters,” Derek replied. The pack looked all the more concerned.   
  
“Should we contact Chris?”   
  
The Alpha’s shook their heads at that. “He can't do any more than we are...These hunters aren’t following protocol, they’re using Stiles as bait to lure us out. Using an innocent goes against their code.”   
  
The group grumbled a moment before Boyd questioned. “What now?”   
  
Scott shook his head before saying.  “We have to play their game if we want to find Stiles...Just stay alert, there’s bound to be a trap somewhere out here for us. They wouldn’t be leading us on if they didn’t have something worked out.”   
  
The Beta’s nodded their heads at that, no one wanted to have to deal with wolfsbane poisoning and the inherent threat it brought them.   
  
“Where do we go from here?” Erica queried.   
  
Derek took a deep breath, scenting the area around them. Stiles scent was just as thick as it had been previously. The hunters trick of spreading the boy scent working far too well for the Alpha’s senses to clear. Shaking his head he muttered sourly. “We follow the last trail.”   
  
The others nodded and were soon following behind their Alpha. Scott sidled up beside Derek sharing a look with the older werewolf as they began their search anew.  They had only gone another mile before the entire pack froze.   
  
“Stiles” Scott whispered the boy's scent was fresh and clear. Turning to Derek to see what their plan was, the younger Alpha found the older frowning.   
  
“what? What's wrong?”   
  
Derek shook his head before saying. “This way.”   
  
He led them away from the scent but silenced any complaints to that fact. Slowly they came around as if skirting the scent all along. It took longer, but the scent grew and grew until it was just as clear as it had been when they had first found it. Coming around a tree Derek snarled. The others fell in behind the Alpha to see what had enraged him so. They paled at the splash of blood on the tree. Stiles scent told them easily who the blood belonged too.  Scott growled at the sight of his missing friend's blood.    
  
“It's fresh.” Derek gritted out.    
  
They all knew what that meant, Stiles was being harmed to harvest his blood as another trick for them. Scott twisted around and growled. “If they’re using his blood now...” He let it hang, unable to say aloud what everyone was surely thinking.    
  
Stiles could bleed to death just for this sick game, they had no way of knowing if his wounds were fatal or not. If they were being treated after they were inflicted.    
  
“Guys”   
  
They twisted about to see Erica standing a ways away. They frowned at the girl, but she shook her head and pointed at something. They followed after the young woman and found what she had stumbled upon. Another scrap of the boy’s t-shirt, this time doused in fresh blood. Scott tore it free from the branch and sniffed it.    
  
The blood was just as fresh as the previous tree, Scott gave Derek a look as he said. “They’re going to kill him.”   
  
Derek shook his head before trying to control the pack around him that were growing agitated. “They won't kill him, he’s too useful in their game...We’ll find him, Scott, everyone keep looking. The sooner we track these bastards down the sooner we can get Stiles home.”   
  
The pack dispersed, though their gaps weren’t nearly as big this time. The inherent danger of the situation driving them to stay within eyesight of each other.  Derek tore the piece of cloth from Scott’s hand and threw it on the ground. Muscling the boy away from it he said.   
  
“We’ll find him, keep looking.” Scott growled but nodded his head before tearing away from the older werewolf to trudge further into the woods. Derek gave the bloody cloth one last look before following after him.   
  
**********************   
  
Stiles gritted his teeth, the radiating pain from his injuries was beginning to dull as he continued to struggle. He figured it had to be adrenaline or something because he could still feel the pain, knew it was there, but he just didn’t care as he continued to try and free himself. The wires wrapped around his wrists securing him to the fencing were biting into his sweat-slicked hands, biting into his flesh and leaving lacerations behind as he struggled. The added blood didn’t make his task any easier if anything it hindered it.    
  
“Come on...Come on...Fuckin work already.”   
  
Stiles kept twisting the wire this way and that, hoping to break it apart just from overuse. He knew his time was short, the maniac hunters who had kidnapped him would be returning at any time and Stiles needed to be free before then if he was to have any hope of getting loose. A small snap resounded and his wrists jerked a bit as they came loose a small bit. Smirking the teen struggled all the more, the wire still biting into his wrists was beginning to break down after his continuous struggles. Another small snap and his wrists came further away from the fencing.   
  
“Yes, that’s it...Come on...Little more.”   
  
A ting sound was heard as the wire split and his hands fell from the fencing to his sides. The wire coiled around his wrists forgotten as Stiles groaned at the change in position, he didn’t have the strength to lower his own arms at a slower pace to save himself from the pain of the jerky motion. Stiles gave himself only a moment before he gritted his teeth and leaned over. His bloody wire wrapped wrists ignored for now as he worked on the restraints on his ankles. It was short work with his hands-free. Smirking Stiles kicked the rope away and stumbled from the makeshift torture table. Stiles panted before nodding to himself, he had to get moving.    
  
Stiles raced over to the propped up cattle prod and smirked. “Payback bitches.”   
  
Stiles made sure he knew how to work it before edging closer to the door. Taking a deep breath he reached out a slick hand to twist the door handle, silently praying that it wouldn’t be locked. It wasn’t. Sighing in relief, Stiles turned the door handle and cracked the door open just a bit. He glanced down the hallway but saw no one. Opening the door more, careful in case he needed to duck back inside at a moments notice. When no one appeared, Stiles skirted out of the room. His face darting back and forth to track any unseen threats. There were none, at least none that he could see. Stiles pressed on, slowly making his way down the hallway only to freeze just before an open door.   
  
Listening for any sounds Stiles let out a whoosh of air in relief when all was silent. He may not have werewolf hearing, but he knew what another person sounded like. All the sneaking around he’d done before his dad had found out about the supernatural had come in handy. There was nothing coming from inside the room, so Stiles quickly darted across the opening and continued forward.  He was near to the end of the hallway when he heard a noise. Frozen in place Stiles twisted around, there was nothing there. Sighing Stiles turned back towards what he assumed was the exit and ran for it, screw if they knew he had escaped. Once he was in the woods he’d have a better chance, Stiles knew that. Not to mention he could scream bloody murder and the pack would hear him...Well if they were within range. Stiles could only hope that he hadn’t been taken too far from his jeep and that the pack would be nearby.    
  
Stiles tore the door open at the end of the hallway and didn’t give the stairs a second look before he was climbing them. Stiles knew that daylight was up now, that they were in some bunker in the ground to hide from obvious detection. Idly the teen had to commend the evil bastards, it was far harder to look for a door in the ground than it was to find some shack in the middle of the woods. All he had to do was get through the top doors and he’d be free.    
  
Scrambling up the stairs despite his bodies flaring pain, he reached out to push on the upper doors only to cry out when they refused to move. Looking around frantically to see if someone was following him, Stiles turned back and with all his might pushed against the door, his body screaming abuse as he forced his form to push against the solid metal doors. Nothing. They were locked from the outside and there was no physical way Stiles could force the lock to disengage. Panting he looked around frantically searching for some lever or button only to find that there was nothing.  Stiles turned to see if there might be another way out when the doors above him suddenly opened. Bright light streamed in, causing Stiles to raise his good arm to shield his eyes as they watered at the lights glare. His heart sank when he saw the hunters looking down at him.   
  
“Lookie who decided to break the rules. Naughty-naughty.”   
  
Gritting his teeth, Stiles ran forward brandishing the cattle prod. The teen got the distinct pleasure of seeing one of the men tased, the man spasming as he fell to the ground. His victory was short lived though as a second later Stiles found himself being slammed to the ground. Groaning at the pain that flared up throughout his body at the harsh treatment, Stiles winced when the only weapon he had was yanked free of his grasp.   
  
“Seems to me that someone needs a lesson in listening to the rules.”   
  
“Fuck your rules.” Stiles gritted around bloody teeth.    
  
Stiles knew in his head it was stupid to make them mad, to get them riled up and in the process get himself hurt worse, but he was so damned fed up with them. There was an eerie silence before Stiles' eyes widened. A half choked scream tearing itself from his lips without his consent as the cattle prod was slammed into his injured shoulder and lit up like a Christmas tree. Stiles jerked about as he was tazed, his body flopping under the electric current. He didn’t know if this was it, if he had finally pushed them over the edge with his latest remarks, but the tazing went on forever or so it seemed. A moment later the current stopped and despite his overtaxed mind, Stiles heard arguing over his own labored breathing.   
  
“Don’t kill him, he’s still useful.”   
  
“He’s an annoying brat that should be taught a lesson. He's breaking the very rules of nature.”   
  
“He’s going to get what he deserves Clay, just settle down alright? No need to fry his brains before we get to the big finale right?”   
  
The man grumbled a moment before Stiles found himself being lifted in a not so gentle manner, dragged forward by the man who had already tazed the ever-loving daylights out of him. Stiles gasped at the pain wracking his body, the stairs coming into view once more as he was held at the entrance way to the bunker. Stiles felt the warm breath of the man, Clay, his captor’s breath tickle his ear as the man’s angry voice whispered to him. “Hope you don’t break too much on your way down.”   
  
Stiles had two seconds to realize what was about to happen to himself before the man shoved his uncoordinated limp body towards the open hole in the ground. The stairs leading into their hideout crawling up to meet him as he fell. Stiles tumbled like a rag doll all the way down, sharp edges of the stone stairs biting into his body until at long last Stiles came to the ground floor. He lay unmoving, silent at the bottom of the stairs as stuttering gasps of air were leaving his body. The world around him teetered as the pain registered at long last to his brain and darkness took him once again.   
  
When Stiles next came around his body was unresponsive to his commands, not that he was giving much of one, but he had tried to move a bit. His neck was crammed against something solid and it wasn’t the most comfortable of positions, however when he tried to adjust himself the motion proved useless as his body refused to cooperate. They must have tied him down again came the idle though as his eyes peeled open slowly, the lids caked with dried blood. Little flakes of red fell as his eyes peeled open and Stiles grimaced at the sour taste in his mouth, though he found he could do nothing about it.    
  
In that moment Stiles panicked as the tired pained confusion plaguing his brain cleared into one startling horrifying thought. His body wasn’t doing what he wanted it too. All Stiles could control was his eyes he couldn’t move anything, not his mouth, not his fingers or toes. Nothing. Stiles was beginning to realize that he wasn’t tied down at all and then came the scariest thought which fluttered through his pain-addled mind. Paralyzed. If he could have Stiles would have been screaming, gasping in great lungs of air, but with his mouth closed and unresponsive Stiles had to settle with the small amounts of air he could suck in through his nose. It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough.    
  
The panic surging through him dictated the use of much more air and Stiles couldn’t get at it. His eyes rolled as he hyperventilated only for a sharp sting to his already bruised face making him focus.   
  
“There now, no need to get in a panic...You’re alright. Well your not, far from it but ya know what I mean right?”   
  
Stiles eyes rolled about in his head until they focused on the man crouched down beside his head. The same man who had been torturing him for the last few hours. The maniacs grin did nothing to quell the rising fear in the teen.   
  
“Feeling a tad under the weather are we? Clay sure did a number on  you kid.” Stiles’ eyes widened as the man smirked at him. “Having a bit of trouble moving huh? Well, you did take a nasty tumble down those stairs.”   
  
Fear crawled up his throat upon listening to the man speak. So it was true, something in his back or neck was broken and he was paralyzed now.   
  
“I suppose it would be rather cruel to make you think you’ve gone and broken your back...Sorry to say this is temporary.” The man held up a needle in his hand and smirked at it like it was his best friend in the whole world.    
  
Stiles chest compressed a bit in relief upon hearing that he had been drugged into staying immobile and wasn’t actually paralyzed. If he had been in a better mental state he might have called into question how the lesser of two evils was being drugged.    
  
“Can't have you running about anymore, not after your last stunt. Pissed Clay off something fierce ya did. He was gonna kill you kid, right then and there and that would leave a mess. Straight up fuck our plans to hell, but I couldn’t let him do that not with the big finale in the works... I mean why play the game if you’re not going to follow through, those mutts will hunt to the ends of the earth for their little pack won't they? Well, that’s the point of the game. Drive em up a wall searching for you and when they get here, the kick to the proverbial balls...They're too late. Grief is...A beautiful thing.”   
  
Stiles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This psycho was about to kill him after leaving him defenseless, Stiles could only watch on as the man he tapped the needle to prime it.   
  
“See this here is more of the toxin that is already in your body, that’s what is keeping you from moving about too much as it is. Drugs do that.” He smiled as if he was lecturing about the dangers of doing drugs to the teen. “ You see Stiles that little amount of movement you got in your eyes, that is about to go away...Along with your heartbeat.”   
  
Stiles looked up to the man about to kill him with a mixture of fear, sadness, and anger. His eyes betraying the fact that he didn’t want to die to the hunter, not that the man seemed to care.    
  
“ Once they realize that your dead they’ll lose their minds like the rabid beasts they are and fall easily to us while they mourn you.” The hunter waved the syringe once more in front of Stiles' face. “This baby is going to kill you, Stiles....” The man leaned down to whisper in his ear. “ And you're going to kill them. Their grief over losing a packmate will make them try to strike out at us for ‘killing’ their precious pet human, but they won’t be coordinated enough to do it...In the end, they’ll wind up just like all the packs before them. Dead. ”   
  
Stiles eyes widened upon listening to the hunter's scheme, the game they’d been playing with them all along. The pack would do exactly what the bastard was saying they’d do, Stiles knew in his heart that the pack would be disorganized upon finding him. Crying in earnest Stiles pleaded with the man through his eyes alone, the only thing he still had control over anymore despite knowing that no matter, if he could use his voice or not the hunter, wouldn’t care. It didn’t faze the man, the hunter just continued to smile his crazy smile as he boasted.

 

“Say goodnight Stiles.”   
  
Stiles watched with tears in his eyes as the needle was brought down to his neck.

 

“I’d ask if you had any last words...But I kinda took that option away from you didn’t I?” The man laughed in the teens face.   
  
Stiles cried as the needle went in, the sharp sting nothing compared to what he was enduring knowing what was going to happen soon. It took a few moments, but Stiles began to feel his heart slowing within his own chest. His eyes began to stop moving even as he tried desperately to continue looking around the room as if that would be enough to counteract whatever he’d been given. It didn’t work. The teen's mind though was wide awake. Stiles could still feel his body, all the aches and pains of his prolonged time with the hunters still right at the forefront of his brain. 

Stiles felt when the man patted his shoulder in some gesture of ‘see ya around’ before leaving Stiles alone in whatever room they’d placed him in, turning off the light as he went as if it would disturb the dying boy..No matter how much he tried to fight to cry or scream nothing happened. There was nothing Stiles could do as his body began to shut down, left in the darkness. Alone.   
  
***************************    
  
The pack had found smaller pools of Stiles blood as they went along, each pool was beginning to congeal. Stiles had been very much alive when the blood was taken, but enough time had passed since the human was initially injured for the blood to congeal. It just showed how much time had elapsed while they were desperately hunting for their missing friend, it seemed that whatever these hunters wanted they were getting. The wolves knew they were being drawn somewhere specific, that a trap no doubt lay in wait for them but the instinct to find and protect their missing pack mate drove them to continue their search. Each step they took doubt crawled under their skin, had it been too long? Would they find Stiles alive? What was waiting for them when they did find the boy? No one was asking these things aloud, the pack knew that no good would come from talking about their present situation.    
  
It wasn’t until both Scott and Derek froze that the others did as well. The alpha’s sensing something that the Beta’s did not. Scott frowned before looking towards Derek.   
  
“Smell that?”   
  
Derek nodded his head a scowl marring his features. “His scent...There’s blood but something else.”   
  
The Beta’s each took a tentative sniff and found the Alpha’s to be right. Stiles scent was strongly lacing the air, no doubt from the splashes of blood around the surrounding foliage. Yet, there was something else lacing the boy’s scent.    
  
“It that the hunter’s scent?” Erica questioned even as she took another deep lungful of air.   
  
The Alpha’s shook their heads. “There’s no way to tell if it’s them or something else.”   
  
The forest was heavy with the boy's cloying smell, the same blood that they had been following for hours. The secondary scent that was floating in the air wasn’t as strong, it was almost too faint in some places to fully sense it.    
  
“What are they playing at?”   
  
Derek shook his head about to urge the pack carefully forward when they all froze. A heart- wrenching scream tore through the forest. It was only because of Derek that the pack didn’t go racing towards their pack mates scream of pain.   
  
“STOP!”   
  
They froze looking torn, they had to follow the Alpha’s order but they wanted so badly to search for the screaming youth. Derek had grabbed a hold of Scott’s shirt, knowing the other Alpha wouldn’t listen to the order implied in his voice.   
“Stop Scott, we can’t know that’s him.”   
  
“It’s him, Derek!” The younger Alpha tugged to get free, a growl breaking through as he clenched his teeth.   
  
Derek growled at the younger werewolf before barking out. “Think! His scent is muddled with something else and now we’re hearing him screaming? Its a trap, we go racing in there without any thought and we won’t find Stiles, but I’m sure there would be some bullets waiting for us.” Derek winced along-side all the others when another scream pelted the air. Scott was gnashing his teeth as he tugged at his shirt that was still in Derek’s clawed hand.   
  
“It’s Stiles, Derek...He’s in pain.” The growl tapered off into a whine.   
  
“I know, but we can’t go racing in there. Keep your head, Scott, we won't be able to help Stiles if we get ourselves killed.”   
  
The younger Alpha nodded his head, feeling that the Alpha was listening to him, Derek let go of the boy's shirt. He turned to the Beta’s and nodded.   
  
“Come on, stay quiet and no racing off...No matter what we hear.” It pained him to say such a thing, but Derek knew how cunning hunters could be and he refused to lose the pack he had now just because they were using Stiles against them. They were going to get him back, but they had to things carefully.   
  
Scott gritted his teeth at that but fell in line with the others as they trailed after Derek. The older Alpha was using all his self-control to not howl at the sounds of Stiles screams. His wolf wanting nothing more than to reassure his pack mate that they were coming, but his more rational side knew that declaring that they were there would do them and Stiles no good. So Derek clamped his jaw shut and trekked forward. 

 

The various screams and cries of pain that pelted from the missing human was radiating throughout the woods, it got louder the closer the pack got to the source and with the increase in sound came the scent of the boy's pain. It was the sudden silence that had them all tensing, waiting for the next horrifying scream only to find the forest eerily quiet. The screaming had cut off suddenly, but the boy's scent radiated pain and fear, it drowned the wolves in it.   
  
Gritting his teeth Scott bit out. “I’m gonna tear them apart.”   
  
Derek threw out a hand to keep the younger Alpha at bay. “Settle Scott, they won't get away with this.”   
  
The younger werewolf nodded his head and did his best to listen to the older Alpha, the pack following closely behind Derek as the older werewolf led them cautiously through the woods. They stopped at a tree line that opened into a small wooded area, the pack froze after cresting a small hill. The little valley below was filled with grass and flowers, despite the scenic appearance of the wooded paradise, there was something despairing laid out before them. 

 

Not ten feet ahead of them lay Stiles, the boy was on his side, limp as if he’d been tossed aside as he was. The sight froze the pack so suddenly because they hadn’t been expecting to see him there, the boy's heartbeat hadn’t been heard as they crested the hill and it took a second longer for them to realize why. Stiles didn’t have a heartbeat.   
  
“No.” Scott whispered.   
  
Derek growled at the sight of the boy's motionless form, glancing about frantically searching for any trap that might lay in wait for them. Derek tried to get a hold of Scott before the Alpha could race forward towards their friend but missed. Cursing Derek and the rest of the pack gave chase, ensuring that whatever Scott would face he wouldn’t face it alone.    
  
Coming to stand circled around the limp form, Derek glanced from the boy's limp form to the forest around them, not truly believing that they were alone. Glancing back down he couldn’t help but take notice of how Scott’s hands were tremoring as he reached out to touch his longtime friend. Stiles' eyes were staring straight ahead, not moving. Just like his heart. The boy's form was covered in bruising, blood trails from his brow, nose, and mouth marring his appearance. Stiles bear chest covered with bruises at varying degree’s of severity, some had had just started to bloom beneath the boy's thin flesh when his heart must have stopped beating. A deep cut on his abdomen showed where the blood that they had been chased for hours had most likely taken from. One of the boy's shoulders was kinked at an odd angle clearly showing off the displaced arm to them just as the boy's wrists were still adorned by the remnants of wire that had obviously been used to control the boy in some capacity.    
  
Scott couldn’t hold back the sobs leaving him as he curled around his friend, cradling Stiles to himself. “Stiles, god Stiles...I’m so sorry.”   
  
Derek had taken one glance at the fallen boy before throwing his head back and howling. Unable to contain the rage he felt upon finding the boy too late, to losing another member of his family. Derek couldn’t help but hear the flow of apologies leaving the younger Alpha and it just fueled the fire in him. 

 

Stiles shouldn’t have been in danger in the first place he wasn’t a wolf, the hunters had no right to attack Stiles. To use him in order to get to them, to kill the boy. Growling Derek threw his head back down to stare at the still form. Scott was cradling the boy to himself, the limp form conforming to, however, the Alpha held him. Looking around to the Beta’s he saw how Boyd had wrapped his arms around Erica, the girl having to be restrained as she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around Stiles, but with Scott in the way Boyd kept her tucked tightly against himself. Isaac was whining even as he shifted from foot to foot, unsure what to do. Growling at the sight of the heartbreak around him, the scents of his Beta’s whining, crying at the sight of their pack mates death.    
  
The Alpha did something rash and called out. “Show yourself!” Derek knew they were nearby, that they were most likely watching and waiting.   
  
The pack jolted at the Alpha’s cry, surprised that Derek was calling out to whoever had caused this. Glancing around the pack didn’t see anything at first until they twisted sharply around at the sound of laughter. A man dressed all in black, an insignia of his hunter's house blazoned on his jacket for all to see. He smirked at them.   
  
“So sorry about your friend there...He really didn’t listen too well.”   
  
Growling Derek took a step forward, but the man shook his finger at him as he leveled a gun at Derek with his other hand.   
  
“You should know he tried to escape, got pretty far too. “ The hunter's voice almost seemed as if he was actually impressed how far Stiles had gotten. He shrugged before commenting. “He managed to taze one of the guys before...Well, accidents do happen don’t they?” The man smirked as he looked down to where Scott was still cradling the limp form. The younger Alpha was glaring up at the man while he held onto Stiles. “I did try to warn him what would happen...Oh well, the boy should have known better than to run with wolves.” His gleaming smile irked the pack as they growled at the man responsible for Stiles’s death.   
  
“He cried real sweet like.”   
  
The pack twisted about to see another man leaning against a tree, a gun in hand though it was lax, pointed at the ground as if he didn’t feel they were a threat.   
“Oh yeah, so sweet that one...Kept saying how you’d all come and save him. Shame what happened, the moment he knew you wouldn’t make it...When he was laying there dying.” The man grinned like a lunatic as his voice trailed off.    
  
Scott growled, gnashing his teeth at the man. The hunter smirked back at the Alpha before saying. “He was so scared, well I’m sure you can tell that cant you? The pain must have been something awful cause he couldn’t even scream in the end.”   
  
Scott lowered Stiles gently to the ground, his eyes trailing down his friends still form one last time before he rose and growled at the man boasting about his friend’s death. “You’re not getting away with this.”   
  
The man scoffed at the wolfs threat, waving the hand not holding the gun towards Stiles.   
“Pretty much got away with it son, no coming back for him...No healing powers in that one, pure human. Maybe you should have all thought about that when you involved a human in your little pack, he couldn’t give me an answer about why you hadn’t bitten him...I figured you didn’t think he was worth it, scrawny thing like him couldn’t be of much use right?”   
  
Scott growled lowly at the man even as the hunter smirked. “Yeah thought not...Whatcha say Clay, think its time to let them in on the big ole secret?”   
  
The pack shifted nervously waiting to see where the next figure would appear, the hunters weren’t giving away their friends position and it took a moment for their ears to register the sound of another set of footsteps coming from the left of them. Turning they saw another man come around a tree, smirking at them while cracking the knuckled of his bloody fists. The pack growled when the scent of Stiles blood came to them on the light breeze coming through the woods, the man smirked as he raised up a bloody fist.

  
“Oh, this bothers you? Well then, finding out that I threw him down a staircase after beating his ass probably won't help matters much, would it? We did the kind thing since he had been so helpful, we put him down for you. That’s what wolves do right? Cull the weak... He was in so much pain after all seemed only right that we put the poor boy out of his misery, shame that you wolves drew an innocent into all of this.”   
  
Derek growled at the man before biting out. “You’re the ones that killed an innocent.”   
  
Clay smirked back at the Alpha as he raised up his bloody hand as if to show it off like a trophy, he gave it a glance before telling the wolves. “Yeah, I did kill your little friend, didn’t I...You’re wrong on one thing wolf, he wasn’t innocent. That wretch chose to stick with your kind, to befriend you rather than keep to his own. He turned his back on the human race siding with you monsters, he’s just as filthy as the lot of you and I took great pleasure in showing him the error of his ways.” The man grinned in a maniacal manner before informing the pack. “ He screamed so prettily didn’t you hear him? Why did you take so long if you could hear him? Unless of course...You were secretly glad that we took care of the weakest member of the pack.” The man grinned. “You’re welcome.”   
  
Chaos broke out the second the man had finished speaking, the insinuation that they were only moments too late to save Stiles driving the pack over the edge. The wolves lunging for the responsible parties to their pack mates death, the hunters raising their weapons prepared for the fight that was coming for them. It didn’t take more than a second before bullets were flying through the air alongside claw and fang.    
  
Scott went for one of the men who had been taunting them all along, one of them who had boasted greatly about Stiles suffering all while they had searched for the boy in vain. Idly he noticed Derek leap at the bloody-fisted man who had been boasting about Stiles’s death, Clay.   
  
The leader of the group, Clay, smirked as he skirted the wolf and took off deeper into the woods. Derek hot on his heels weaving in and out of the trees as he hunted the hunter.   
  
Meanwhile the Beta’s lunged towards at the other hunters, attacking with a fury normally only seen in Alphas. The knowledge that they were too late to protect their pack mate driving them to get revenge in his stead.   
  
Scott dodged a spray of bullets, wincing when one clipped his arm, the sizzling flesh was slow to mend as he took off after the man. Scott knew that he could tend to any wolfsbane after this was done, it wouldn’t affect him enough to stop him from doing what he needed to do. Scott wouldn’t let these men get away with hurting his friend, with killing Stiles. 

Gritting his teeth Scott howled as he ran around a tree closing the gap between himself and the hunter that was shooting at him. He heard the bullets thunk into the meat of the tree before he lunged towards the man, but unlike what the hunter was anticipating he didn’t run straight at him, nor did he jump to catch him from up high, Scott ducked down as he ran towards the hunter who had to compensate for thinking he knew what the wolf would do.

Scott was forced to dodge as another barrage of bullets came his way, ducking behind a tree at the last moment letting the bullets thunk into the trunk of nearby trees. It was the sudden click that had both parties stilling, Scott smirked when he realized what the sound was just as the hunter cursed. Scott was around the tree and taking off after the man who was once more running all while struggling to reload his gun. Scott knew that the hunter was starting to sweat about his chances. He could smell it.    
  
Just as the man twisted to fire again, Scott leaped. Taking the man straight down and in one precise movement wrenched the gun from the hunter's hand, breaking the man's wrist in the process. The hunter cried out in pain before struggling for a knife, he had no luck there either as Scott slammed the man back against the ground. The Alpha’s clawed hand digging into the hunters arm piercing the fragile flesh and preventing the man from drawing the knife he was scrabbling to pull free. Leaning down Scott growled at the shocked man, the hunter was defenseless and now at the mercy of the Alpha sitting astride him.   
  
“This is for Stiles.” Scott bared his teeth at the man.   
  
The hunters scream echoed the forest.   
  
*******   
  
Boyd threw one of the hunters against a tree with enough force to rattle the leaves up above, following after his prey and not giving the man a chance to recover. Picking up the man Boyd wrenched the man's arm back, hearing the distinct pop of the shoulder being pulled from its socket. The man cried out in pain at the same time he swiveled to slice the Beta with his knife. Boyd growled as he took a slash to the chest, but retaliated in kind and stopped the man as he fumbled for his gun on the ground. The hunter never got off a single round though as the wolf grasped the man’s neck with his other hand and with a sharp gesture the fight was over. the hunters neck broken as the body was discarded to fall to the ground. Growling at the man he had just killed the Beta took a moment to take solace that the man who had played a part in his pack mates death wasn’t going to hurt anyone else, the sound of his pack fighting drew Boyd away from the dead hunter, the wolf leaving to assist his fellow Beta’s.   
  
Erica kicked out at the man trying to slash at her with a knife, she hissed when the blade caught skin. The laced knife causing her flesh to sizzle as it tried to heal around the tainted wound, despite the pain of the blade's coating Erica didn’t relent. Clawing at the man’s face she grinned as he stumbled back crying in pain, his hands raised to try and stop the pain searing his flesh as her claws had carved deep furrows down his face.    
  
Erica lunged at the distracted man, drawing him down to the ground even as his hands flew up to wrestle with the girl on top of him. Desperately battling against the werewolf that was growling at him and trying to keep Erica’s clawed hands from going near his throat. Erica’s claws dug into the man’s hands instead of his throat as the hunter struggled, twisting to the side the hunter rolled the girl off of him. Gaining the upper hand the hunter grabbed for another knife, slipping it free from its sheath and with a twirl of his wrist to get into position drove it down at the werewolf. The hunter's hand never made it, he choked a moment before slumping to the ground.   
  
Erica looked up and nodded at Boyd in thanks, the werewolf gave her a toothy grin as he helped her up, the large branch of a tree he had used against the hunter being discarded back to the forest floor. The pair turned and ran when they heard Isaac yelp in pain, the youngest was cradling his shoulder and stumbling back from a grinning man who was raising a gun to take another shot. Boyd howled and lunged tackling the man backward’s into a tree with the full force of his werewolf body.    
  
No longer alone, Issac came forward and helped Boyd pin the struggling man. Grabbing one of the man’s arms the wolves forced the man to kneel, from there it was easy enough to disable the hunter. The three wolves moved as one to keep the hunter in line, Erica was ingenious enough to take Boyd’s belt and use it to tie the man’s wrists together. Once they were sure the hunter wouldn’t get away, they took a step back as the hunter struggled this way and that in an attempt to get away. Erica huffed before giving a nod to her boyfriend slammed a fist into the man knocking him out. Erica turned swiftly away leaving it to Boyd to deal with the hunter as she went to examine Issac’s shoulder, the other Beta winced as the girl prodded the wound.   
  
“It went through.” The boy claimed through gritted teeth.   
  
Erica ignored him a moment before checking his back to see that the boy was right, the tainted bullet had passed all the way through the boy’s shoulder and although the wound was bleeding, Isaac wasn’t losing too much blood. The wolfsbane poisoning could be dealt with as soon as they reached home, with nothing left to do for the boys wound the wolves prepared to go in search of their Alpha’s. The three turned sharply when they heard an Alpha’s roar. Glancing to one another they ran towards it only to be stopped by Scott as the Alpha ran into them on his way back into the field. The Alpha glanced their way before shaking his head.   
  
“It’s Derek...He went after the leader.” Then as if to calm them, added. “He’s not asking for help.”   
  
The Beta’s nervously looked in the direction of the other Alpha’s roar before turning upon hearing Scott growl. Back at attention, the group bared their teeth at the sight of the scrawny man who had first greeted them in the field upon discovering Stiles. The man was looming over Stiles’s body a knife to the boy's throat.   
  
“Back the fuck off.” The hunter snarled, all pretense of joking gone.   
  
The wolves stepped forward intent on tearing the man away from their lost pack mate. The man brandished his knife closer to the dead teen’s throat before calling out.   
  
“Another step and he dies.”   
  
The wolves paused, frozen at the what they had just heard.


	3. To live or to die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pack discovers what the hunters had been up to all along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't sure if I would get a chapter done this week, but taa daa. Hope you all enjoy it!

Derek roared in the man’s face, he had long since ended the game of cat and mouse that the two of them had been engaged in. The man before him was a bloody mess, more of his own blood covering him than Stiles now.  It was small compensation for the fact that Derek couldn’t save Stiles, but making the man pay helped the mourning Alpha in some small way. 

 

The man coughed up a trail of blood but continued to smirk as he was held by the Alpha’s clawed hands. “Go for it wolf. Kill me.” The hunter taunted with a bloody grin. Derek growled. “He was so sure you’d come to save him.”

 

The man laughed only to cry out in the next moment when the werewolves clawed hand dug further into his shoulder. Collecting himself from his own amusement, the man looked back up into the red eyes glowering down at him and made the wolf face facts.

  
“Shoulda gave him the bite when you had the chance...Now you gotta live knowing you failed your precious little human. That you wolves are the reason he’s like he is now, it’s all your fault.”

  
Baring his teeth at the hunter, trying to force the words out of his own mind as they reminded Derek too much of how he had failed his families pack when he was younger against Kate.

  
“Why him? Why not just attack the pack?”

  
The man laughed at the question before groaning as Derek pressed his claws deeper into the man, allowing them to slice through the man’s clothing and sink into the man's thin flesh as he sought answers.

  
“Cause...Creatures like you never learn...You don’t belong here, don’t belong anywhere, you’re just abominations that need to be culled. Turning humans...Associating with us...Nothing good comes from it. He betrayed his own kind when he sided with you, your pack was always going to face retribution for being the abominations that you are, he had to pay the price for choosing your kind over his own.”

  
Growling at the man’s claims, Derek admitted with a snarl. “I want to kill you with every fiber of my being, I want too...But I know that turning you over to the hunters will be far worse than me tearing into you. That kind of death is too kind for someone like you.” Derek showed his fangs in an eerie smile.

  
It wasn’t the outcome that he wanted, but it was the only way to ensure that he and the pack didn’t become hunted. Chris would back them either way, but having a handful of dead hunters would see them persecuted regardless if they told the truth about it. So, with a resigned level of hatred for the man, Derek used his own words against him. 

  
The hunter paled when he heard the wolf’s words. “What are you talking about you bloody ani-”

  
“you made Stiles suffer, for nothing. You broke your hunter's oath and killed an innocent...We’ll see how the other hunters feel about that. I’m sure Chris Argent will be up in arms to take care of you and as far as the rest of your kind, I think they’ll choose me over you.”

  
The man shook his head as he yelled out in anger, but Derek could hear the tinge of fear in the hunter's tone. “Kill me you beast!”

  
Smirking Derek leaned forward, baring his teeth he said. “You’ll pray for death for what you’ve done to my pack. I’ll make sure of that if the hunters fail to take care of you, which I think we both know won’t happen, I’ll find you and finish it myself. You shouldn’t have messed with my pack, you shouldn’t have messed with Stiles.”

  
Derek gritted out the boy's name as if it physically hurt him, not taking any chances Derek was quick to pull the weapons he could see free of the man’s body, tossing them carelessly aside. Knowing that there was bound to be at least one or two weapons he couldn’t see, Derek secured the man’s wrists together with a pair of zip-ties he’d found on the man. The hunter grimaced as he was manhandled away from the tree and drug back towards the field where the boy's body lay. He stumbled along as the Alpha dragged him. As they walked the hunter rambled, trying desperately to get the wolf to just kill him instead of turning him over to the hunters.

  
“He begged, your little pet begged.”

  
Nothing.

  
“Cried for us not to hurt you all.”

 

Derek gritted his teeth at that. It was so much like Stiles to be more concerned for others than himself. The hunter grinned when he noticed the flinch the wolf had given off.

  
“Told him what we had planned, how he was going to be the reason you all died...He wept like a-”

  
Derek slammed the man into another tree and growled at him.

  
“Don’t!”

  
Smirking the hunter replied. “What? Tell you how he suffered? How he lay there gasping in pain unable to move...How even as he lay there broken he pleaded for us to leave you all alone?”

  
Growling Derek lunged forward his teeth about to tear into the man’s throat when he heard a howl. He reared back and caulked his head to the side. He heard it again. His pack was calling him. Snarling at the man, he dragged him along. Not being mindful enough not to slam the man into a few trees as they went. He could care less what happened to the hunter and he felt no remorse for harming the man who had been gloating about his friend's death. Just as he was coming closer to the field Derek stopped to take a moment. He closed his eyes to collect himself, he didn’t want to face the sight of the boy's body again but he knew he had too. Derek couldn’t avoid seeing Stiles, after all, he just didn’t know how he could take seeing the boy laying there so still again.

  
“Derek!”

  
Jerking his head up he nodded to Isaac when the boy came running up. There was a mass of blood on his shoulder, but the boy wasn’t favoring it, so he figured the wound had already closed.

  
“The pack needs you, he’s got, Stiles.”

  
Frowning the Alpha questioned in confusion. “What do you mean he has Stiles?”

  
Isaac glanced towards the bloodied man before the teen rambled. “They were lying, all this time they were lying to us, to Stiles. Everything was set up and then when we started to win when there was only one left that we didn’t see...”

  
“Issac get to the point!”

  
The youth nodded his head before saying. “Stiles is alive.”

  
The Alpha paused. Frowning he shook his head at what he had just heard, only to growl and hold tighter to his captive when the man pulled away and yelled.

  
“The bastards dead, I killed him myself!”

  
Isaac frowned at the hunter before looking back to Derek, they had both heard the lie in the man’s words.

  
“The hunter said they drugged him...He’s got a knife to Stiles’s throat and is making demands. Come on”

  
He tugged at the Alpha, to which Derek complied. If there was a chance even slim that Stiles might still be alive he would do whatever he could to see the boys smile once more. Derek followed after Isaac and entered the field, his eyes focusing immediately on the man kneeling beside Stiles’s body. He growled at the sight of the knife to the boy's throat. Dead or not, no one threatened his pack. He barely gave a second glance to Boyd as he threw his captive towards him, the hunter stumbled falling to the ground before Boyd.

“Tie this guy up.”

  
The Beta easily manhandled the man into submission and the man was soon bound sitting at the base of a tree. The hunter was glaring at them all, but after he started to shout out for this accomplice to just ‘kill the bastard’. Boyd slammed his head into the tree trunk and silenced him. Derek stood next to Scott, both Alphas glaring at the threat to their friend. The leader’s calling to kill the boy, spiking the urgency in the situation. Giving credit to the lunatic looming over Stiles.

  
“What’d you do to him?” Derek called out.

 

The man grinned before saying. “A little of this a little of that.”

  
Glaring the Alpha motioned to his pack to stay back when they moved closer in an attempt to reach Stiles and pull the hunter away. The man simply pressed the knife against Stiles more and arched his brow in a challenging manner.

  
“You’re not getting out of here in one piece.”

  
The man snorted before tilting his knife against the boy's pale neck. “I’m in control of this wolf boy, you make a move and I’ll slice him from ear to ear. Sure, you might get the satisfaction of tearing me apart, but I’ll have won.”

  
Growling Derek grabbed a hold of Scott’s arm to prevent the boy from lunging at the threat while simultaneously telling the Beta’s to back down. “No one move.”

  
The Beta’s gnashed their teeth even as they were compelled to follow their Alpha’s orders, Scott pulled against Derek’s hold but didn’t break free.

  
“What do you want?”

  
He saw the looks of his pack, the appalled look of ‘what are you thinking?’ ‘ You can't really be negotiating with this guy’. He ignored their stares and instead focused on the task at hand namely getting the hunter away from Stiles. The man was grinning like a loon as he glanced down to Stiles.

  
“Well, I wanted you all dead, but somehow I don’t think me asking you to jump off a bloody cliff would be listened too.”

  
Derek and the pack growled. The hunter shook his head. “Thought not...Well, then I suppose I could simply request safe passage out of your territory. A life for a life as it were.”

  
Derek gritted his teeth, it was a fair trade even if it made Derek want to vomit at the idea of letting the bastard go. Still, both he and the hunter knew that this was an important trade to the pack and the hunter did hold all the cards at the moment.

  
“Derek?”

  
He ignored the concerned voice of his Betas, instead choosing to glance towards Scott. He gave the boy a consoling look that seemed to anger the boy. Derek shook his head before turning his attention back towards the man.

  
“Safe passage out of our territory, Stiles goes free.” Derek agreed with a firm nod. “Drop the Knife.”

  
“I want your word as an Alpha...Both of your words.”

 

Derek tilted his head at the man’s wording, but the hunter barked out a laugh before gesturing towards Scott.

  
“I know he’s an Alpha too. Your promise won't mean shit if he doesn’t give one too.”

  
Derek’s heart sank upon hearing that, he had hoped that the man wouldn’t pick up on that. It seemed that Scott’s did too, the boy had been unaware of the little loophole that Derek had been trying to use.

  
“Well?” The hunter asked as he tilted the knife against Stiles’s neck. 

  
Scott nodded his head. “Deal. Safe passage out of our territory, drop the knife.”

  
The man glanced back towards Derek as if wanting to make sure that no one was trying to get out of the deal. 

  
The Alpha nodded. “Safe passage out of our territory.”

  
Smirking the man replied.  “Good.”

  
The wolves tensed, only to relax as the man flung his blade across the field and held up his hands. The pack raced forward, Scott throwing the man to the ground and away from Stiles. The Beta’s circled the hunter, preventing him from leaving. He smirked up to them as he lay in the grass. Scott joined Derek at Stiles side, the pair looked at the boy before glancing back at the hunter.

  
“What did you do to him?”

  
The hunter smirked before saying. “Paralytic toxin from an Egyptian Bastili.”

  
“What's that?” Scott grit out. 

  
The man smirked before stating in a condescending tone. “Not a nice kitty that’s for sure...Their quills do what you see before you now. He’s got no heartbeat that you can hear.”

  
The wolves shifted anxiously around the hunter when they didn’t hear a lie, Scott cried out. “So he’s dead, you-.”

  
The man snorted before shaking his head. “No, you idiot, pay attention to what I’m saying.” He growled before pointed out. “He has no heartbeat that you can recognize. Put your ear to his chest.”

  
Frantic, Scott leaned over his friend. His head crashing into Stiles bruised chest. The hunter snorted at that but remained silent after Erica dug her heel into his shoulder. The Alpha suddenly sighed before raising his head and nodding. The pack collectively released its pent-up tension.

  
“How long will his heartbeat be like that?”

  
The hunter looked to Derek before shrugging or as much as a shrug as he could accomplish with Erica’s heel digging into him. “He’s pretty small, it’ll last a while with him I’d wager...Course the fact we gave him two doses won't help much.” The man grinned. 

  
Growling, Scott lunged only to have Derek yank him back, the other Alpha’s tone biting as it pained him to protect the hunter. “ A deal was made Scott.”

  
Scott glared at the hunter who nodded back at him in a cocky way. Derek didn’t release the teen as he looked down at Stiles.

  
“How long till he wakes up?” Isaac questioned suddenly.

  
Derek’s head shot up to watch the hunter, he wanted to know the same thing. 

  
The hunter snorted at the Beta before jerking his hand towards the human. “He is awake.”

  
The pack froze, Derek didn’t have to worry about Scott, his hand falling away as the Alpha collapsed next to his friend once and began speaking with the paralyzed boy.

 

“Stiles...Stiles man can you hear us?”

  
The hunter rolled his eyes before stating sarcastically. “Of course he can hear you, but unless you can learn to read minds, your shit outta luck on the replying department.”

  
Scott sent the man a glare before barking out. “What does that stuff do to him?!”

  
The hunter sighed before explaining. “Well, he’s paralyzed at the moment...Won't be taking those midnight strolls you wolves are so fond of.” The man chuckled in his taunting of the wolves who were growling at him. “He’s awake, can hear, feel, taste, all that fun stuff, just can't do shit about it. You throw him into a tree he’s gonna feel it, but there ain't shit he can do about it.”

  
Scott nodded his head as he turned to smile down at his longtime friend. Derek took that moment to question the hunter. “He’ll regain movement on his own then?”

  
The hunter nodded his head. “He’ll be back to his sparkly self in no time champ...Well, as close to it. Gotta say I worked him over pretty good...And clay throwing him down those stairs didn’t help the kid out much.” The man smirked before raising his hands as the Betas stepped closer. 

The hunter singsonging. “We made a deal.”

  
The Beta’s looked to Derek, but the Alpha shook his head. They stood firm in their circle around the hunter but continued to let out little growls of discontent. 

  
“What did you do to him?”

  
The hunter glanced once more towards Derek. “Oh, you want all the juicy details? You flatter me so, I have to say he’s not my best work but he’s close to it. Almost cut out his tongue at one point, but then he wouldn’t have been able to scream and we did need him to do that...So I let him keep it.”

  
The Alpha curled his claws into his own hand upon listening to the man’s boastful words. He wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and tear the man’s throat out, but he’d sworn to let the hunter leave their territory. Scott raised his head from his staring at Stiles to glare at the man a moment before speaking once more.

  
“He asked what you did to Stiles.”

  
The hunter sighed as if the whole situation was tedious for him. The subtle growls of the Beta’s going unnoticed by the man.

  
“Well, let's see...We dislocated his shoulder after pulling him from that scrap heap he calls a car, Clay beat on him a bit when he grew frustrated in how long it was taking...We lashed him to a metal fence with wire, he’s still got some on his wrists I see...His little escape was actually pretty good, I have to admit the kid had balls not that it helped him...Besides that I sliced him up a bit, oh, how could I forget? I electrocuted him for a couple hours, on and off of course between me and the guys beating on him. Shame that us humans aren’t meant for that level of play, not like you wolves. He took it like a champ though.”

  
The wolves growled, Scott bared his teeth and was once more prevented from attacking the hunter by Derek. Though the older Alpha was finding it just as hard not to let the younger Alpha attack the man.

  
“Enough!” Derek called out in a gruff voice. 

  
The hunter smirked at him before asking. “We going to head outta the woods now big guy?” The hunters sickenly sweet mocking had the pack shifting in discontent.

  
“We're there any more of you?”

  
“Me? No, I’m one of a kind champ.” The hunter grinned even as he avoided the question.

  
Glaring at the hunter tried to trick them, Derek reworded his question. “More hunters, are there more hunters with you?”

  
The man sighed now that he couldn’t avoid the question, glancing around he saw the majority of their group. “Well, looks like Michael isn’t here.”

  
“Blonde with an ax?” Scott questioned. The hunter nodded. “He’s dead.”

  
“Oh, well then nope, just us.” He grinned as if the knowledge of his fellow hunter didn’t bother him in the least.

  
Nodding his head when he detected the truth and doing his best to disregard just how unhinged the man before them was, Derek looked up to the Beta’s and gave out instructions.

  
“Boyd I want you to carry their leader, we need to take him to Chris.” He sent a look towards the still conscious hunter who steadfastly reminded them all.

  
“Safe Passage.” He practically sang the words.

  
“Issac, Erica. Find something to tether his hands together, we don’t know what else he might have on him. We’ll lead him out once we're sure he can’t do anything. I and Scott will handle Stiles. The rest of them can wait for Chris to come through.”

  
The pack nodded their heads, about to perform their duties when the hunter piped up. “I don’t think being restrained was part of our deal.”

  
Derek glowered at the man before mentioning. “There’s only my word stopping them from ripping you apart.”

  
The hunter tilted his head before nodding. “Fair enough. Tie away.” He held up his hands to Erica. 

  
The girl glared at the man before saying aloud. “We could just break his legs and drag him, be simpler and effective.” The grin that spread across the Beta’s face was mirrored by her fellow packmates.

  
The hunter smirked before replying to the girl's threat. “Oh, honey if you want to cop a feel I won't stop you.”

  
Erica snorted before saying. “Like I’d touch a rat like you with a ten-foot pole if I didn’t have too.”

  
The hunter smirked. “Oh, but you have too. Your Alpha commands it.”

  
Glaring Erica was about to retort once more when Isaac stepped in. “You want me to cop a feel?” The blonde flexed his clawed hand in front of the man. 

 

The hunter sighed before shaking his head. “No, that’s quite all right. I suppose a little bondage between friends is alright.”

  
“You're not our friend.” The normally silent Boyd remarked.

  
The hunter glanced over to the teen before shrugging and saying. “Maybe not, but I kept yours alive. Clay would have ended him hours ago, we knew you were coming after all and there was little reason to keep him alive at that point.”

  
Boyd glared at the man before turning to go and fetch the other hunter. Being ignored the hunter focused his attention towards the two Alpha’s who was leaning over the boy's body and Quietly talking to him. 

 

Shaking his head he called out. “Whispering sweet nothings into his ear isn’t going to do much.” 

 

Both Alpha’s twisted to glare at the man. Smirking the hunter decided to let them in on a little secret. “Since I'm feeling so generous, partly because of you honoring our deal and all. You should know that I wasn’t kidding about the whole him being awake and aware thing.”

  
The Alpha’s frowned at the hunter, unsure why he was choosing to re-emphasize that tidbit of knowledge. 

 

Sighing the hunter spelled it out from them. “What I'm trying to tell you two is all those lovely bruises, that shoulder, he can feel those. He’s paralyzed, not numb.”

  
The Alpha’s eyes widened as they twisted back to stare at Stiles.

  
“Shit Stiles, I'm so sorry man.”

  
Scott immediately placed his hand on the boy's arm and a moment later dark veins raced up the teen’s arm. Scott gritted his teeth as he absorbed the boy's pain.

  
“How’s that feel?”

 

Derek cast a glance back to the hunter before remarking. “You don’t have to be awake to leave our territory alive.”

  
The man smirked and nodded. “Fine- fine...Was just curious is all.”

  
Snorting Derek turned back around and directed his next comment towards Stiles. “We're going to get you out of here. We’ll see if he can’t manage everything for us, no hospital if we can help it.” Derek promised the unresponsive teen.

  
The Alpha’s turned to glare at the hunter when he laughed. The pack growled at him. The man shook his head before gesturing towards the boy’s body.

  
“Really? No hospital. I thought you wanted him to live, torturing the poor bastard after what he’s been through already because of you beasts, you wolves are cruel indeed.”

  
The man winced as Isaac pulled him roughly to his feet. Yanking the man’s arms together as Erica lashed them together, tying a tight knot in the rope she’d found on one of the other hunters. 

The man winced before smirking. “Oh, so kinky darling.”

 

The growls only seemed to egg him on, but he twisted when Isaac admitted aloud. “He just prefers it that way.”

  
Raising a brow the hunter snorted before asking. “This happen a lot to him then?” The hunter seemed amused by the notion of Stiles having to endure pain on their behalf. The Beta’s were swift in arguing with the hunter despite what little good it did them.

  
Derek and Scott were doing their best to ignore the hunter as he ranted and raved behind them. Trusting that the Beta’s could handle things. Scott was still taking the boys pain but was beginning to look a tad pale.

  
“Scott you have to stop.”

  
Looking up to Derek the teen gave the older Alpha a beseeching look. Begging him not to make him let go. 

 

Derek shook his head as he said. “You can't keep this up. We need to get him to Deaton he’ll have pain meds. I need you alert and you won't be if you continue this. I don’t want him hurting any more than you do, but we're not safe out here...Even if he wasn’t lying about there being more hunters we can’t risk anything else happening.”

  
Scott let out an airy sob as he nodded his head. His free hand coming out to gently stroke Stiles head.

  
“were here man, we’re gonna get you taken care of I promise. I-i know this is going to hurt, but it’s only for a little bit longer.”

  
Derek placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and nodded before looking down into the boy's blank eyes. “Were here Stiles, we’re taking you home.”

  
A gentle shove and Scott was pulling his arm back. The black veins dissipating as the werewolf stopped absorbing the boy’s pain. Stiles showed no outward appearance that he was feeling any pain, and that was when Scott’s brow crinkled. “Why can't we smell him?”

  
The pack perked up upon hearing his question and the hunter sighed before saying. “Same reason you can't hear his heartbeat. It kinda defeats the purpose of him being ‘dead’ ya know.  It’ll come back in time until then you have to just work things out like the rest of us sorry humans. No senses to figure out emotions to lead you. Just old-fashioned detective work. Good luck understanding him without your noses.”

  
Scott glared at the man before saying. “I’ve known him my whole life, I don’t need my senses to know how he’s feeling.”

 

The hunter smirked as if he loved the challenge itself. “How’s he feeling?”

  
The wolf glowered at the cocky man, but the argument was cut short by Derek.

  
“Let's get going, it’s a long walk back and Stiles needs Deaton. If he keeps being an ass, gag him.”

  
The hunter rolled his eyes at the threat. He allowed the Beta’s to lead him towards the edge of the field they were in while the two Alpha’s sorted out who was going to be carrying Stiles. In the end, Derek won, the argument that Scott wasn’t 100% as he had been taking the boys pain a few minutes ago trumping the age-old ‘he was my friend first’. Derek didn’t comment on the lame excuse, instead, he raised a brow before leaning over to pick up Stiles. 

 

Scott had huffed before collecting himself enough to bring some semblance of order to the pack as Derek had been doing previously. He double checked to make sure the Beta’s had both hunters in hand before glancing around. The other hunters were still down, but there was no way the pack could drag them all through the forest. 

 

A simple call to Chris was sure to solve their issue of having an excess of hunters in the woods. The older hunter would know what to do as far as the reprobates that had kidnapped and tortured Stiles. Knowing the hunter, he’d take great pleasure in dealing out some ‘justice’ of his own. Smirking Scott nodded his head before falling in step with the rest of his pack.    
  
********************    
  
Scott was silent when he caught up to Derek. He stared straight ahead after glancing at Stiles a moment. There was no change in the boy so he looked forward.

  
“How much pain is he in?”

  
Derek was silent a moment before he replied coolly. “I haven't checked” he ignored the growl that Scott issued in favor of explaining “we can't let our guard down yet and draining his pain would put us at risk and just make him suffer more by having his pain taken away and then put back.”

  
They both heard the hunter being dragged by the Beta’s taunting the other wolves, the agitation In their Beta’s was clear in the tone of their voices.

  
“Why are we even letting them live?”

  
The other Alpha didn’t miss a beat before saying. “For one, we made a deal with him. He’s going to be allowed to leave Scott no matter how we feel about it. Other hunters would come if it got out that we had gone back on a deal. As for the other one...He deserves to see how much he failed and if the hunters won't take responsibility for him, we’ll deal with him ourselves.”

  
That seemed to mollify the boy as his previously tensed shoulders drooped a bit. “I don’t like not hearing him.”

  
Derek smirked a bit at hearing his fellow Alpha’s admission. “I know you mean, his heartbeat...But it is stranger for me to not hear him rambling.”

  
Scott smirked as he glanced over to Derek and then down to Stiles. The boy's eyes remained open, unblinking. It was unsettling for the Alpha to know that Stiles could only see and feel all while being cut off from any other means of expressing himself. 

  
It didn’t take long for his brain to connect the fact that they were on their way out of the woods and just what that would mean. 

 

Frowning the Alpha muttered. “We're going to have to keep the sheriff away from those two...He’ll want to kill them when he sees Stiles...Especially once he hears what happened.”

  
“We're not going to tell him everything that happened Scott.” Derek was adamant on that. “There’s nothing he could have done to change this and it will just make things harder on him.”

  
The teen nodded. “No, I know that I just meant he’s gonna notice Stiles being a rag doll and he’s immediately going to think the worst...Just like we did.”

  
Derek frowned before glancing down at the boy he carried, he nodded his head when he realized that Scott was right. They’d thought the worst because they hadn’t been able to hear Stiles heartbeat, the sheriff might not have their abilities but he was always quick on the uptake, seeing them coming back with bloody hunters and Stiles immobile...It wouldn’t be far-fetched for him to assume that Stiles was dead.

 

“You’re right, but there’s not much else we can do besides reassure him that Stiles will be alright.”

  
Scott snorted. “You mean to leave out the part where his son was drugged by hunters.”   
Derek sighed.

  
“And beaten.”

  
“Scott” Derek grit out. “He doesn’t need to know any of that, he’ll see for himself the state that Stiles is in, besides Deaton is going to help patch him up.”

  
The Alpha sighed at the other Alpha’s warning tone. Scott nodded his head even as he double checked on the Beta’s trailing behind them in order to reassure himself that their prisoners hadn’t gotten away. Assured that things were being handled he turned around and focused on the long walk before them. Both Alpha’s were absently listening to the captured hunter as he taunted the Beta’s who were growling low in their throats. The man seemed to be taking a lot of pleasure in telling them about his previous ‘hunts’. 

 

Scott twisted his head over his shoulder and barked out at the man. “Shut up!”

  
The hunter grinned at the angry Alpha simply giddy to know that he’d upset the other wolf.

“What? You don’t like hearing how good at my job I am? Is it perhaps because you don’t like the fact that we came so close to doing the same to yours? Or maybe it’s because you couldn’t Protect your little pet there, am I getting warmer?”

  
Scott growled at that, but a moment later the hunter was speaking in a lax tone.

  
“You promised to protect him right? He’s pack and your his Alpha...Yet you failed to do that, didn’t you?”

  
The snarl that left Scott as he spun around intent on shutting the hunter up himself was cut off when Derek stopped him with a growl of his own.

  
“Scott.”

  
The younger werewolf looked to Derek, the man shook his head before looking to the hunter and replying in a cold voice. 

 

“We did fail him, this shouldn’t have happened in the first place but your wrong in stating that this is our fault, to begin with, you’re the reason this happened. You were right that we weren’t about to abandon him and Stiles knows that. However, it's my pack that’s walking out of this woods intact while your hunters lay in pieces, your the one that failed.”

  
The hunter smirked before sighing in a dramatic way. “What a lovely speech. Do you think it makes him feel better? Do you think that numbs the pain that he went through because of you?”   
The man jerked his head towards the boy in Derek’s arms. “Do you think that makes up for him being at our mercy while you were led around by your noses?”

  
Derek bared his teeth at the hunter before turning around and walking forward. If he didn’t, Derek was going to end up letting the pack tear into the man. Scott growled one last time at the hunter before turning to follow after Derek.

  
The hunter laughed as he was pulled along. “Oh, I'm beginning to like you guys...So much fun wi-argh.”

  
The Alpha’s turned only to smirk when Erica muttered. “Oh sorry, was that a tree? Didn’t see that there.”

  
Smirking the pack resumed their walk, the groaning hunter being propelled forward by Erica and Isaac’s hands on his arms. 

  
They’d been walking for close to an hour when the change happened. One minute they couldn’t sense anything from Stiles and the next small tangible scents began to show up. The whole pack stopped, their noses in the air as they fought to get a grasp on the boy's scent. Scott and Derek were gathered around the boy. Derek speaking softly to the boy.

  
“Its alright Stiles were here.”

 

The boy's scent was getting stronger and it was radiating fear.

 

“Stiles, dude its okay...It's over man.”

  
The boy's scent didn’t change from the cloying smell of his fear. Then bit by bit another scent emerged in the boy's scent. Wrapping around the fear smell like one would embrace a friend. A sharp sour smell that signaled the boy's pain. The wolves shifted nervously upon registering the boy's feelings. 

Scott reached out to place a hand on the boy's leg as he spoke. “We're almost back, I know it hurts dude, but we're almost back and my mom will take care of you alright.”

  
“Yes, I'm sure that makes all the difference to him right now.”

 

The hunter smirked. The man winced when Erica and Isaac’s claws dug into his arm. He glanced to the wolves on either side of him before looking back at the angry Alpha’s. 

 

“Tell him how it's all going to be alright, go on do it...I’m sure that will make what he’s feeling go away.”

  
Derek growled at the man, his red eyes seemingly glowing as his anger flared at the man’s taunts. Scott bared his teeth at the man before saying as he glanced back down to Stiles.

  
“Don’t listen to him man, we're gonna get you taken care of.”

  
“Because you did such a good job of it before right? Of protecting him.”

  
Snarling, Scott tore away from his friend's side and made it all of two steps before stopping. He spun back around and ran back to Derek’s side just as the older Alpha began speaking to Stiles.

  
“Its alright Stiles, nothings happening. Scott’s right here.”

  
The younger werewolf came back into the boy's limited range of sight. “I’m sorry, I'm sorry...I won't go anywhere okay.”

  
The hunter tilted his head as he watched the wolves react oddly. 

 

He smirked before stating. “You can smell him again, can’t you? Well, that was faster than I thought I’ll admit.”   
  


Scott glanced towards the man before looking back down to Stiles. Never verbally answering the man. Though it would seem that the hunter took the look like a yes because he chuckled.   
  


“He scared? Even after you’ve come to rescue him? Are you sure he thinks of you as pack?”   
  


Erica growled in the man’s ear, jerking him out of Isaac’s tight grip and causing the other werewolves claws to cut the man’s arm as she ripped him away and into a nearby tree. The man laughed as he was thrown against it, a small oomph leaving him as his back connected to the hard surface.   
  


“Bring it, honey.” The hunter leered back in challenge.   
  


“Erica!”   
  


Isaac cried out in alarm. A moment later and Erica stopped. Scott’s hand on her shoulder staying her from attacking the man.   
  


“Stop.” His voice reverberated his station as an Alpha.    
  


The girl deflated some under the man’s order, her head turning to look at him with pain in her eyes. Scott shook his head at her before reminding her. 

 

“We made a deal...” Scott grit out sending a precursory look back at Derek who nodded. “We don’t let him go, the hunters will see us as a threat.”

  
“You are a threat.”

  
Scott ignored the man’s words, instead focusing on the angry girl before him. “He’s not worth it. Come on...”

  
The girl took a deep breath before nodding her head. She grabbed their captive and flung him back into Isaac. “Take him a bit, I cant...I just can't.”

  
Isaac nodded his head as he made sure his grasp was strong on the man. Scott nodded to the Beta’s before drawing Erica over towards Derek who stood a few feet away whispering to Stiles. Trying to calm the boy whose fear had spiked when Scott had disappeared once more. 

 

Erica smiled tightly as she peered down at the human in the Alpha’s arms. “Stiles.”

  
She didn’t know what else to say at that point. Everything they tried to use to calm the human was thrown back in their faces by the hunter. Already on edge, the girl chose to simply say the boy's name and try and show that they were there for him. She gently placed a hand on the boy's undamaged shoulder. The boy’s fear wavered a bit which caused her to smile. When Scott came to stand beside her the boys remaining flared anxiety lowered back to its previous levels.

  
Scott smirked at his friend before nudging Erica. “Help Isaac when you can...No one should Have to deal with that prick for long.”

  
The girl smirked knowingly to the Alpha before nodding her head. She turned to Stiles before leaning down to chastely kiss the boy's forehead. Not minding the dried blood that her lips disturbed as she showed some small amount of affection to the paralyzed boy. Righting herself she turned and walked back to her pack mates. 

  
Scott watched her go before looking up to Derek. “Let's go”

  
The Alpha nodded and the pack fell back into line, heading back towards the road where the crash had happened originally and where the sheriff was no doubt waiting for them.  As they walked Scott couldn’t help but feel the need to fill the void of his friend's normal chatter. They all knew that if he could, the boy would be rambling. Pain or not he’d be talking. So Scott took over in the hopes that hearing his friends voice might lower some of his remaining anxiety.

  
Instinct drove the pack to stay in a  semi-circle like formation around their injured pack mate as they traveled. Scott kept up an almost constant trail of nonsense as he talked to Stiles in the hopes of calming the boy.

  
“No one got hurt dude, well Isaac got pegged in the shoulder, but it’s fine. It went straight through and we can make sure he doesn’t have any wolfsbane in his system once we get back to the loft. So no worries there.”

  
“I’m good.”

  
The boy offered up, Scott smirked at the teenager’s interruption. Knowing that Stiles would feel better hearing from the injured boy then just from him.

  
“I think that was the worst of it, some of us got a few cuts and what not, but they already healed up so you don’t need to worry about us. Everyone’s here and we're all fine...Can't say the same for the hunters though.”

  
Derek snorted at that much to the pack's amusement before the Alpha added. “They got what they deserved.”

  
He shot the one awake hunter a hard look, the man smirked back at the Alpha like he wasn’t offended by the comment.   
  


“I would like to say the same to you, but I'm afraid your little human took the brunt of it didn’t he?”

 

The pack growled at the man who was smirking in a way that reminded the pack far too much of Peter. They did their best to ignore the man’s comments, but Stiles scent continued to radiate a mirade of fear and pain as they walked no matter what they said to the boy. Spiking if the hunter spoke and ratcheting up if he made mention to Stiles himself and what he’d been through. It was beyond frustrating for the pack to know that they couldn’t help their pack mate, couldn’t reassure him enough. 

 

It was as they were walking down a steep embankment that the boys fear suddenly skyrocketed. The wolves winced upon scenting it, Scott immediately was in the boys face trying to calm him as Derek held still.

  
“Hey hey, dude Stiles, it's okay...What's wrong? Your fine dude, you're fine.”

  
The boy glanced up to ask Derek what he thought was wrong when his eyes caught sight of the hunters just over Derek's shoulder on the hillside. Looking back down it clicked. Stiles could see them.

  
“Stiles, its okay, we’ve got it handled. Boyd’s got the one guy out cold man and the other ain't giving us any trouble. It's fine man.”

  
Catching onto what the Alpha was saying Derek looked over his shoulder and glared at the hunter before giving a jerk of his head to Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. The three Beta’s understood and moved out of Stiles range of sight with their captives. Twisting his head back around he looked down at the boy he was holding, ignoring Scott’s continued rambling that was failing to do much, the Alpha interrupted the boy.

  
“Stiles.”

 

Scott paused in his frantic speaking, his head jerking up to look at Derek, but the Alpha was staring straight down into his friend's eyes.

  
“Listen to Scott, to me. It's over. We're taking you home. They can't hurt you anymore.”   
  


The boy stared up, his eyes never wavering in their stagnant pose. The boy's scent began to calm some after the Alpha was through talking.

  
“See that’s it, yeah, your fine dude.”

  
The boy's scent relaxed back to its previous levels of fear, though the werewolves were sure that had more to do with his present paralyzation then anything. Stiles knew they were there, that he was with them now and they’d protect him, but it didn’t make the fact that he couldn’t move at all any easier for the human to take. Assured that the boy was at least somewhat calmed, Derek lifted his head and told Scott.

  
“We’ve only got another mile to go...Go ahead and make sure it’s clear. We need to contact Chris so he can deal with the hunters. Call your mom and Deaton, we might be able to handle this outside of the hospital.”

  
The Alpha glanced down to Stiles as he said the last part. The boy needed treatment, that much was obvious to the whole pack. Letting the boy stay out of the hospital, however, would be best for their friend. Scott nodded, although he didn’t want to leave his friends side, the other werewolf had a point. He could run ahead and make sure no one was going to get in the way. Call Chris and check in with his mother about what to do for Stiles. The boy had issues when it came to hospitals and if they could prevent him from having to deal with a visit then all the better. 

Glancing down to Stiles the werewolf promised. “Be right back bro, you hang tight.”

  
He gently squeezed the boys leg before tearing off through the woods. Derek sighed upon seeing him leave, at least with a task at hand the other werewolf might keep his head for a while longer. Derek didn’t bother to turn around as he barked out.

  
“Come on, just a little further.”

  
The pack rallied around him and they trekked forward.   
  
*******************   
  
Scott was instantly relieved upon finding the road still bare. The only person around was the sheriff and he had somehow managed to keep his deputies away, whether to the station or to search for Stiles around town he didn’t know. The sheriff turned as soon as Scott came running out, his wolf form pushed aside as he made the last few feet to the worried man. The now human form of Scott ran up to the sheriff and prevented the man from asking anything.

  
“We found him...The packs got him, we need to call Chris to deal with some hunters and my mom...Stiles needs help, but if we can take him to Deaton...”

  
The man nodded his head, well aware of his son’s issues with hospitals.

  
“Alright, contact your mother, I’ll take care of Chris. How many should he expect?”

  
“We only brought back two, the rest are still out there...He should find someone for cleanup.”   
  


The sheriff didn’t even flinch upon hearing that, instead the man nodded and pulled out his private cell. Dialing the hunter and leaving the werewolf to take care of the other phone call. Scott fished out his phone and quickly dialed his mother. It took a few rings before his mom came through.

 

“Mom, I need to know what to do. Stiles is hurt.”


	4. A deal was made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pack get Stiles out of the woods and hand over the hunters to Chris. Derek and Scott take Stiles to Deatons in the hope that the druid can do something for Stiles' wounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a roll with this thing! Managed to keep ahead of editing thus far, cross my fingers I can keep this up since the future chapters have A LOT of editing needed. Anyways, hope you all enjoy the chapter.
> 
> Thanks to those of you who are leaving Kudos and comments, means a lot to me and I love hearing from all of you.

The pack was making good time and Derek knew they’d be coming out the other side of the forest soon. With any luck, Scott would have things worked out before they even got there. So far Stiles hadn’t shown any signs of coming out of his paralysis, though the boy's scent continued to fluctuate. Boyd and Isaac had made sure to keep the two hunters well out of the boy's line of sight for the rest of the trip back and between Erica and Isaac a small trail of conversation sprung up. The teenagers claiming that giving Stiles something to focus on would be better than abject silence. 

  
The hunter remained silent for the most part since the two werewolves were talking about inconsequential things. Making sure to stay away from topics that the man could twist and use as a weapon against them. He grew bored soon enough and quietly allowed himself to be lead about. Both Boyd and Derek didn’t comment on the teenager's theory, instead, allowing the two Beta’s to talk about anything and everything if it made them or Stiles feel better then it was worth it. All of them looked up when they heard someone coming, Scott broke through the tree’s and grinned at them.

  
“Chris is on his way. Deaton’s waiting.”

  
The Alpha cast a glance towards the captive hunter before turning back to look at Stiles. Nodding the pack hurried down the small hill back towards the road, the sheriff was waiting for them pacing back and forth until he caught sight of them.   
  


“Stiles!”   
  


Noah ran over to Derek and the Alpha made sure the man could get as close as possible to his son without endangering Derek’s hold on him. The man paled when he finally caught sight of his son.   
  


“God...What’d they do to you?”   
  


The pack remained absolutely quiet, no one daring to answer the man’s question. The sheriff lifted his head and stared at Derek, seeking answers. Before the Alpha could say anything the hunter piped up from behind Derek.   
  


“He was the bait.”   
  


The Alpha gritted his teeth before saying. “They were using him as bait to draw the pack out...They wanted to kill us and were using Stiles to get us where they wanted us.”   
  


The sheriff shook his head at that. “Why? You don’t hurt people, you’ve been protecting beacon hills all this time.”   
Derek nodded his head to the confused man, at this point there was nothing they could say or do to make the man feel better about the situation. It was only when the sheriff turned to look at the other teen’s that he caught sight of the downed man in Boyd’s hands and the man being held by Isaac. It was then that he realized that the previous voice hadn’t been one of the teen’s, but instead the grinning man. He frowned before darting forward, Scott grabbed the sheriff’s arm and held him back as he shouted at the man.   
  


“What’d you do!”   
  


The hunter smiled his crazy smile but looked bored as the sheriff pulled against Scott’s hold. Wanting nothing more than to attack the man the sheriff was held back by Scott who held firm as he tried to talk his friend's father down.   
  


“Sir, its over...He can’t hurt anyone now.”   
  


It didn’t seem to reach the man as Noah continued to try and pull away, Scott glanced behind him when the sound of a vehicle pulling up garnered his attention. The Alpha grimaced and spun around when the sheriff got free of his hold and lunged forward. Slugging the hunter in Isaac’s grasp, Isaac let the man drop to the ground with little care of if the man was hurt or not as he moved out of the way of the enraged officer.   
  


“Noah! Stop.”   
  


Chris ran across the pavement and bear hugged the man as he tried to attack the already downed hunter.   
  


“Stop...It's done. It's done.”   
  


The sheriff shook his head back and forth as he whispered his son’s name, Chris nodded his head before looking over towards Scott.   
  


“Load them up in the car. There are restraints, you don’t have to be gentle.” The bite in the man’s words backed up his lack of empathy towards his fellow hunters.   
  


Nodding Scott helped Isaac get the man up off the ground before following after Boyd who had already headed towards the vehicle. Chris held onto the sheriff as the man sobbed a bit, the hunter glanced over towards Derek and frowned at the sight of the limp boy in his hands.    
The wolf shook his head before stating. “He’s paralyzed.”   
  


The hunter’s eyes widened at that, but Derek cut the man off before he could say anything.   
“Its some sort of toxin they injected him with...The one the sheriff just slugged told us about it. Its supposed to wear off in time.”   
  


The hunter sighed in relief, for a moment he had feared the worst. Especially with how the sheriff was reacting, turning his attention back to the man he told him.   
  


“It’s alright, they aren’t going to see the light of day again, I swear it. They broke every code we have Noah. It’s done, Stiles is safe.”   
  


It took a moment, but the sheriff finally came around enough to nod, glancing over to where Scott, Boyd, and Isaac were returning from the hunter suggested.   
  


“Take Stiles to Deaton and get him sorted...I’ll deal with this.”   
  


“There’s more out there.” The hunter glanced towards Erica and raised a brow. The girl nodded before tacking on. “Most of them are dead though.”   
  


The hunter sighed and nodded, turning his attention back towards the sheriff Chris urged the man. “Come on, head into town...You need to help me get this sorted, the boys can take care of Stiles alright? Nothings going to happen to him, I’ll deal with the hunters.”   
  


Scott came forward and promised his best friends father. “I’ll make sure he’s alright, we’ll call as soon as he’s settled.”   
  


The sheriff cast a worried glance to his son, obviously not wishing to part with him.   
“Come on Noah, let them do their part. We have to make sure no one investigates this any more than they already have.”   
  


Nodding the sheriff allowed the hunter to drag him towards his vehicle, Chris cast a look over his shoulder to the wolves before getting the man in the car. They watched as the patrol car drove off before Chris returned to their sides and with a no-nonsense tone asked. “What happened?”   
  


He had chosen to spare Noah the task of listening to whatever his son might have been through, knowing the man’s control wouldn’t hold out. Scott glanced to his paralyzed friend before summarizing what had taken place in the woods.   
  


“They kidnapped him, tortured him and used his scent and blood to get us into the forest.”   
  


Chris nodded his head to the Alpha werewolf, letting the boy know he had his undivided attention. Thus far the techniques the hunters had used weren’t new to him.   
  


“We...We came over a hill and he was just lying there and we couldn’t hear his heartbeat. He was dead.”   
  


Chris’s eyes widened at that and he took a step towards Derek, but the Alpha shook his head and took over telling the hunter what had happened.   
  


“He wasn’t dead...The toxin slows his heart beat down. If you press your ear to his chest its there.”   
  


Sighing the hunter asked. “What then?”   
  


“We were only told the truth after we got the upper hand over them. The one with the mouth on him was one of the ones who tortured Stiles. He saw that they were losing and bartered for his life.”   
  


Chris snorted at that before asking. “With what?”   
  


“Stiles.”   
  


The hunter sighed when he heard what the hunters had used as his bargaining chip, he knew what type of deal had most likely been made by the pack but needed to be sure. “You made a deal...What are the terms?”   
  


“Safe passage out of our territory”   
  


Chris frowned a moment looking to Derek in confusion, the Alpha smirked at the hunter before stating.   
  


“He’s not as smart as he thinks he is.”   
  


“Huh?”   
  


Scott glanced between the two figures confused, the Beta’s likewise were stumped as to why Chris had a shit eating grin on his face. Derek looked to Scott before gesturing towards the forest with his head.   
  


“Technically speaking, those woods aren’t our territory... The woods belong to Chris and his family as they fall under the Argents protection. My families lands are on the other side of the old Hale house and the area around the new place. Our deal is null an void, I just made him think it was our territory so he’d move away from Stiles.”   
  


Scott’s eyes widened before he scowled at the older Alpha. “Why’d you let him live afterward?!”   
Scott barked out, his eyes flashing as he brandished his hand towards Chris’s SUV. The other Alpha remained calm, though his eyes flashed a similar red to Scott’s own.   
  


“Because we needed more information about what had happened to Stiles. Deaton is going to need to know what happened if he’s going to treat him.”   
  


Scott’s anger settled only to flare a bit when he heard Chris laughing, the pack was staring at the man like he was nuts until he told them.   
  


“Poor bastard has no clue.” Chris shook his head with another laugh. “Well, I’ll take care of this, you get Stiles taken care of. Deaton’s waiting for you at the clinic, tell him to write up a report on his findings...The council will want to know what happened.”   
  


Scott nodded his head to the hunter and with his business done the man climbed into his SUV and drove away. The pack turned and collectively relaxed, it was done. The hunters wouldn’t be hurting anyone else, least of all Stiles. Derek gave a jerk of his head towards their waiting vehicles.   
  


“File in, we need to head straight to Deaton, he’s waiting for us.”   
  


Scott ran ahead and opened the door so that Derek could climb in with Stiles, the Alpha nodded to Scott and with little prompting the werewolf barked out to the Beta’s.   
  


“Boyd drive you, Erica and Isaac to Deatons. We’ll take the other car.”   
The teen nodded and took the offered keys before racing over to the second vehicle with the other Beta’s. Scott climbed into the driver's seat and was hastily pulling away from the curb.   
  


“How is he?”   
  


“Same.”   
  


Nodding Scott stared straight ahead, trying his best to focus on the task of driving when all he could think about was his best friend in the back seat. Sensing the unease in his fellow Alpha, Derek tried to reassure him.   
  


“He’s going to be okay Scott.”   
  


The younger Alpha nodded his head. “I know.”   
  


The drive to Deaton’s was slower than either of them would have liked, but in good time they were pulling around the back of the veterinary clinic. Deaton was waiting, the back door propped open. Scott got the door of the car opened and helped leverage Stiles out before racing into the facility. The druid nodded his head to the Alphas before ushering them in.   
  


“Put him on the table.”   
  


Scott didn’t have to be told twice, he gently lowered his friend onto the table and looked up as the man approached.    
  


Gloves in place Deaton looked over the human. “What can you tell me?”   
  


“They injected him with something to make his heartbeat unregisterable to our ears. They said it was an Egyptian cat...Bastella-ili or something.” Scott shook his head before rambling further. “I don’t know, it was a cat. Whatever it was its covered his scent and made him like this, the hunter said he’s awake and aware...He just can't move.”   
  


The druid nodded as he gently turned the boy's injured wrists over, the deep lacerations causing him to frown. The wire would need to be unwrapped from the boy's sliced wrists before he could tend to them.   
  


“He’s had nothing for the pain I take it?”   
  


The vet looked up at Scott, the Alpha shook his head before admitting. “We tried to take some of his pain, but...It was a lot.” Scott was already looking back at Stiles when Deaton came to some conclusion.   
  


Unaware of the look he was receiving as Scott stared down at his friend, Derek ignored the other Alpha as he answered the silent question the vet was asking.   
“He can feel everything, but the draining of his pain was too much for us and we weren’t sure if it was safe yet out there. I made the call.”   
  


The vet nodded his head as he sighed at the sight of the teenager, he turned and prepared a syringe all the while stating.   
“I wouldn’t wish to overdose him, but given the situation, I feel it is safe enough to give him a little more than normal. At the very least it will make him more comfortable while I tend to his wounds.”   
  


The vet found a steady vein and gently inserted the needle, depressing the plunger. Once it was done Deaton pulled the needle free and tossed it into a bin, he nodded his head before reaching for some antiseptic so he could begin tending to the boy. A moment later the back door was opening again as the Beta’s filed in, the man pursed his lips before shaking his head.   
  


“Out.” It was spoken in a gentle yet firm tone all while the man didn’t bother looking up from his present task.   
  


The Beta’s frowned before looking to their Alpha’s silently begging to be allowed to stay. Scott wasn’t paying any attention to them so Derek had to take the lead.   
  


“Go wait outside.”   
  


Erica growled before barking out. “We have just as much right to be here as you do!”   
  


The Alpha flashed his eyes at the girl, causing her to lower her head. “Outside.” He growled.   
The girl turned and fled. Boyd gave the motionless form of Stiles one last look before following after his girlfriend. Issac glanced between Derek and the backs of his fellow Beta’s.   
  


“Issac.”   
  


Looking to Derek the boy said. “Maybe we should head back.”   
  


Raising a brow the Alpha silently asked what the boy meant.   
  


“To the loft...He’s gonna need someplace to recover right? His dad can’t watch him 24/7 like we can.”   
  


Smirking at the teen he nodded. “You three go back to the loft then, get things set up. Food, water, blankets, Whatever he might need.”   
  


Issac smiled and nodded before racing out of the clinic, a moment later they heard the second car starting and leaving.   
  


“Distracting them to keep them out of the way?”   
  


Derek leveled an irritated look towards Deaton despite the man not looking his way. “You didn’t want them here and giving them something to do will ease their minds.”   
  


The man smirked and looked up at Derek. “True, but do you think the sheriff will be letting his son out of his sight once this is done?”   
  


Derek didn’t mince words with the druid, simply choosing to state. “The sheriff will let Stiles be where ever he wants to be and Isaac isn’t wrong he can’t watch Stiles 24/7 while he’s on shift.”   
  


The druid smirked before returning his attention to the boy on his table, he shook his head at the sight of the boy's wrists.   
  


“You did a number on yourself Stiles I can only surmise that the wire wasn’t like this originally and that you struggled.”   
  


He glanced into the boy's open eyes, making a small noise in his throat the druid mumbled. “I do hope there won't be any more surprises regarding all of this?”   
  


Looking up at Scott and Derek the druid then continued to ask. “I take it the people who caused this mess are dealt with?”   
  


Derek nodded his head before Scott interceeded. “Two of them are still alive.”   
  


The vet nodded his head as he leaned down to start on one of the boy's wrists. “I see...You do not sound...Approving of that resolution.”   
  


Scott was silent a moment before he glanced to Derek, the older Alpha watched him silently.   
“I’d rather they were in the forest with their friends.” He muttered truthfully, Derek didn’t react to his words.   
  


The man made a noncommittal sound as he worked to unwrap the embedded wire in the human’s wrist. Deaton gritted his own teeth as he had to tug to get the wire out of the wounds the boy had caused himself, shaking his head the vet muttered.   
  


“He’s going to need a tetanus shot.”   
  


“I can get one from mom.”   
  


The vet nodded his head before sighing as a large chunk of wire came free, he placed the bloody metal aside before starting again. The werewolves were silent as they watched the druid tend to their friend. Stile’s wrists were bleeding freely now that the wounds were being disturbed and the boy's blood making the wolves anxious.   
  


“If you need you can wait outside.” Deaton offered when he sensed the change in the wolves.   
  


“No.”   
  


The druid nodded to the steely tone of Derek’s voice as he got another section of wire free from the boy's wrist before commenting.   
  


“You may talk to him, I will be busy for a while I’d wager.”   
  


Scott seemed all too eager to start talking, he leaned over his friend so that Stiles would be able to see him and smiled.   
  


“You did good man, really good.”   
  


The boy's eyes remained staring straight ahead as if he hadn’t heard the wolf talking to him, swallowing Scott glanced towards where the vet was working some wire free from the boy's wrist.   
  


“I-I’m sorry it took us so long to find you.”   
  


“Scott.”   
  


The boy turned his head to see Derek staring at him, the older werewolf shook his head. Scott bit his lip before muttering.   
  


“If we’d found him sooner-”   
  


as much as he hated to admit it, Derek knew that Scott needed to hear it. “We couldn’t have found him any sooner Scott. They were messing with our senses and leading us around in circles.”   
  


The boy nodded his head though it was clear to both Derek and Deaton that the boy still thought they could have done more. The druid sighed as he pulled last bit of wire from Stiles' wrist, looking up to Scott he advised him.   
  


“You may wish to aid his pain relief...The antiseptic is going to hurt and I have no doubt that morphine or not, he will feel this.”   
  


Scott nodded and a second later his arm was resting on stile’s chest. Black veins slowly appearing though they were faint.    
  


Scott smirked before stating. “Morphine is good huh Stiles?”   
  


Derek smirked at that, knowing that Scott was talking about the boy's minimalized pain he was tapping into. The Alpha turned and watched as Deaton began to pour the antiseptic over the boy's open wrists. Derek’s head twisted when he heard Scott say.   
  


“I know your glad right about now for the whole werewolf powers huh man? That stuff stings like the dickens.”   
  


Smirking as he watched the black veins expand and grow as Scott absorbed the pain of what Deaton was doing from Stiles, the Alpha muttered. “I’m sure he’s grateful that it's being used for something more than your lacrosse games.”   
  


Scott smirked at Derek before stating. “He doesn’t mind so much when we win.”   
  


Snorting Derek twisted back around to stare as Deaton finished mopping up the bleeding wrists. The man was examining them once more, dabbing at the wound to clear the site of blood so he could make sure it was cleaned to his high standards. When he appeared satisfied did Deaton lift his head and say.   
  


“Coband.”   
  


Scott jerked as if he was about to turn and go fetch the needed item, but paused when his mind caught up to the fact that he was still in charge of taking Stiles pain.   
  


The druid smirked at the Alpha’s dilemma before telling Derek. “Third shelf green cupboard.”   
  


Derek nodded and gave Scott a pat on the shoulder as he went to retrieve the needed bandages, he returned a moment later to hand the vet the stretchy bandage material. Gauze was wrapped around the boy's marred wrists before a layer of Coband securing it.  Once he was pleased that the wrist was taken care of did Deaton move around, ushering the wolves to go to the other side.    
  


It was a balancing act as Scott refused to remove his hand from Stiles, afraid of letting the boy go for more than just the reason that he would be in pain. The second wrist was taken care of in much the same way. Deaton dug out all the wire before he cleaned it with antiseptic, wrapped it in gauze and then secured with Coband. With the boy's wrists taken care of the vet moved on, lifting his gaze from the boy’s wrists he took a look at the boy's shoulder before he shook his Head at the sight of it.   
  


“I’m afraid I will need some help with this...It’s been left far too long and is swollen...Getting the joint back in place is going to be hard.”   
  


The wolves looked to one another before Derek asked. “What do you need?”   
  


“One of you should brace his body down, the shoving could make him move about. The other will help me manipulate his shoulder back into the socket, it's going to take some force to get it to comply.”   
  


Scott looked away before saying in a saddened tone. “I can't do that to him...I’ll brace him, I can take the pain.”   
  


Derek gave the boy a prolonged look before he nodded and moved around Scott to be in a better position to help the vet. Deaton instructed Scott into a good position before nodding his approval, the werewolf leaned over his friend and braced his body to make sure it would move from the force of them resetting his arm. All the while making sure his hand stayed firmly planted on the skin so he could absorb any pain the movement might cause him.   
  


“Hang tight Stiles, were just going to fix your arm.”   
  


Deaton didn’t comment on the boy talking to the paralyzed figure, instead, he moved Derek over and lifted Stiles’ arm. Showing the werewolf how to brace the boy's elbow to get a good grasp he moved to feel along the boy's swollen joint.    
  


“Alright, when I tell you too, I want you to shove his arm forward. It's going to fight against that, don’t stop until I tell you too.”   
  


Derek gritted his teeth as he held the boy's lax arm, but nodded as he watched warily as the druid moved the boy’s shoulder around before nodding.   
  


“Alright, on one...Two...Three...”   
  


Derek shoved forward, gritting his teeth as he tried to use just enough force to make the boy's arm go where the man wanted it, without hurting the boy further. Despite Scott taking the boy's pain, he didn’t relish causing it in the first place. Deaton was grimacing as he tried to move the boy's shoulder into position as the joint refused to pop back in.   
  


“Stop.”   
  


Derek sighed and pulled back, still holding the boy's arm. “Is it done?”   
  


Deaton shook his head at Scott who was panting, his arm a mish-mash of corded dark veins.   
“No, it wouldn’t go back in.” Looking up at Derek the man told him flatly. “Don’t worry about hurting him, we need to get his arm back in place.”   
  


“You can't smell his pain. Cant feel it!”   
  


The man sighed at the agitated werewolf before shaking his head. “I know that, but we can't leave his arm like this. It is causing him far more pain like this then what it will once its back in place. Now are you ready to try again or should you switch with Scott?”   
  


Derek growled before shaking his head. “Go.”   
  


Nodding Deaton gave Scott a look and the youth leaned back over his friend’s body to prevent him from moving. Derek grasped Stiles’ elbow and waited for Deaton to give the signal, the man maneuvered the boy's arm and shoulder a bit before nodding.   
  


“Alright. One...Two...Three....”   
  


Derek grit his teeth as he shoved forward, ignoring the smell of the boy's pain as it flared to life around him. Instead, he focused solely on Deaton, waiting for the man to tell him to stop. The vet was frowning as he shoved the boy around before finally, Derek jerked forward a bit and a loud pop sounded.   
  


“Stop!”   
  


Derek released the pressure on Stiles’ arm and looked up hopefully, Deaton pressed around the boy's shoulder a moment before nodding.   
  


“It's in.”   
  


Lowering his head Derek nodded, grateful that it was over.    
  


The breathy voice of Scott alerted them to a change in Stiles. “He’s crying.”   
  


Jerking his head about Derek zeroed in on what Scott was saying, Stiles indeed had tear trails down his face. The teen’s eyes were watering and overflowing down the sides of his face. Grimacing Derek laid his hand down on the boy's arm prepared to absorb some of the pain as it appeared Scott couldn’t take enough for the boy when Deaton stopped him.   
  


“It's not good to make him go back and forth, you cant continue to take his pain. He needs to adjust to it, the purpose of you taking it now was so we could get his shoulder back in place. That is done, the morphine will help with the residual pain.”   
  


Growling at the druid Derek barked out. “It’s not enough!”

 

“We have to help him!” Scott argued.   
  


The man shook his head before turning to collect some things, choosing to ignore the raging Alphas until he changed the subject.   
  


“We’ll have to bind his arm, the less movement the better for while the joint heals. Even a playful tug on his arm could pull it out again.”   
  


Glaring at the back of the druids head, Derek tore his gaze back down to the crying youth who Scott was talking too.   
  


“I know man, I know this sucks and it hurts...But we're almost done.”   
  


Derek wasn’t sure how much of that was true, from what he could tell the boy needed stitches on his brow, not something Stiles would appreciate and the slice on his abdomen could go either way from what he could see. The bruising and swelling around the boy's body was another matter that would just act as prolonged proof of their failure to have protected the teen. Derek glanced over when Deaton returned with some long strips of gauze.    
  


The man looked at him and asked. “Are you helping?”   
  


Glaring at the man the Alpha nodded, Deaton let the previous matter drop as he instructed the Alpha.   
  


“Gently lift his arm up and brace it against his chest for me.”   
  


Derek carefully handled the boy's arm, once it was in place did he glance to Deaton for more instruction. The man was ignoring him though, instead, he was focusing on his task as he wrapped the boy's shoulder tightly to help support the joint. From there he wrapped bandages around the boy's elbow and mid-arm once those were in place did the man say.   
  


“Lift him up for me.”   
  


Both Derek and Scott helped maneuver the boy upright for the vet so he could wrap the bandages around the boy's torso and secure his arm in place.   
  


“Good, lay him down.”   
  


The wolves did as asked, once Stiles was once more laying down did Deaton tell them. “In a few days or so we can replace those with an actual sling, but for now I want it wrapped at all times.”   
  


Scott nodded his head as he smiled down to his friend, trying to be supportive he told the boy.   
  


“Almost done.”   
  


Stiles hadn’t stopped crying, his scent betraying the amount of pain he was in. After the argument between Deaton and the Alphas, Scott had begun to taper off how much pain he was absorbing. He didn’t always agree with either of the two men, but he knew Deaton had a reason for it. Stiles would be reliant on painkillers for a while and the pack couldn’t be with him 24/7 to take the pain away and even if they could it wasn’t healthy for them either. It didn’t help the Alpha to let his friend go, the scent of fear and pain still clinging to the boy.   
  


Derek frowned before looking to Deaton. “How long until he can move?”   
  


The man shook his head “ I have no clue...I could take a blood sample and try to figure it out but I have never treated anyone for this particular creature's abilities. I will need to do some research.”   
  


Derek gave the downed boy a look before nodding.   
  


“Do it, its been hours now and the most he’s done is cry...He should have been back to normal if it was going through his system like a normal toxin.”   
  


The vet gave the Alpha a look before reminding him. “If he was a werewolf then yes, but he is human. Things take longer for the rest of us Derek.”   
  


The Alpha gritted his teeth at the reminder, the hunters earlier tauntings about Stiles being vulnerable as a human bouncing around in his head.   
  


“I know, just find out how long.”   
  


The vet nodded and quickly prepped a needle, he easily collected a blood sample in a vial and tucked it away for review when he was done. From there he gathered some more antiseptic and looked at the boy's head.   
  


“This is going to sting a moment.” He muttered.   
  


Not that it did Stiles any good, the boy had no choice but to take whatever was given to him. Still, the wolves flinched when the boy's scent changed upon his head being dabbed at by the vet. Deaton cleaned the wounds before deciding on what to do.   
  


“Scott get me a suturing kit.”   
  


The boy looked up from his friend and nodded, tearing himself away from the boy he gathered the needed materials before coming back. While they waited for Deaton to get the needle threaded, Scott spoke to Stiles once more.   
  


“You’re doing good man, I swear we're almost done and the shoulder was the worst of it.”   
  


Stiles eyes continued to trail tears down his cheeks as he stared blankly ahead, looking over to Derek the Alpha sought out reassurance to what he was doing. Derek shook his head before speaking to Stiles.   
  


“Little longer and we’ll take you back to the loft.”   
  


The boy remained as he was, no sign that he had heard the promise. The wolves watched as Deaton slowly threaded the needle through the boy's head, pulling the two sides of a gash together before making a knot. This continued until eight sutures later the boy's gash was closed, Deaton snipped off the excess thread and nodded.   
  


“Good. Scott, please bandage this for me, I want to see to his stomach.”   
  


Scott nodded his head and easily traded places with the man. Derek watched as the younger Alpha pulled on a pair of gloves long enough to apply some antiseptic cream and then began to tape down some gauze to the boy's brow. The simple action of tending to his friend seemingly Improving the boy's mood as when he was done Scott pulled off the gloves and smirked down to Stiles from above him.   
  


“Now you can say your all rugged like manly scar and all that.”   
  


Derek snorted at the Alpha before stating. “ He needed a scar on his forehead for that?”   
  


Scott nodded before stating. “Everyone knows that facial scars make you look badass.”   
  


The older werewolf rolled his eyes at that before he twisted around to look at what progress Deaton had made, the man had cleaned the wound on the boy's stomach and was appraising it.   
  


“Stitches?” Derek asked warily.    
  


Deaton hummed as he examined the laceration on the boy's stomach, it was deeper than it first appeared. Nodding his head Deaton asked. “Scott get me a fresh suture kit.”   
  


“Sure.” The Alpha ran back to get another pre-made suture kit for the druid, bringing it back in record time and thus allowing Deaton to get back to work while he consoled Stiles.   
  


Derek watched on silently as the druid threaded another needle with suturing thread and began the slow and methodical task of piercing Stiles flesh on one side of the open gash and then the other, slowly drawing them together before making another stitch. It took longer for Deaton to stitch the teen’s abdomen, but that wasn’t all that surprising given how it was twice the size of the cut on the boy's brow. Once it was stitched tightly closed did the druid apply an antibacterial cream and prepare to bandage it.   
  


“It was deeper than I thought initially, but it should heal well.”   
  


Derek nodded and watched the man bandage the laceration that the hunters had used to collect the boy's blood. His wolf screamed for vengeance, but he stamped that down. They had vengeance the hunters were dead and the leader would be facing justice through the hunters, Derek idly hoped that the man who had gloated about Stiles torture received ten-fold for it.   
Deaton had already moved onto inspecting the various injuries the boy had incurred while being under the hunters care, there were some burns that must have been the result of the electrocution the gloating hunter had spoken of.   
  


Stiles continued to leak a steady stream of tears down the side of his face as Deaton poked and prodded him and before he could stop himself, Derek found his hand gently grasping the boy's own limp hand. Derek ignored the look he was got from both Scott and Deaton as he took some of the boy's pain. He watched as Deaton examined the contact marks of where the boy had been introduced to electricity.   
  


“They electrocuted him too.” The druid murmured to himself.   
  


“They said they did that a couple times.” Scott bit out choppily.   
  


Deaton raised a brow at Scott before looking down at his patient once more. “Hmm...And you cant hear his heartbeat”   
  


Scott looked up quizzically “No, why?”   
  


The vet mentioned offhandedly. “The electrocution might have caused his heart to go into an arrhythmic pattern...Without being able to hear it there is no way for me to tell if he was harmed by the experience.”   
  


Derek glanced to Stiles still form before asking. “What does the arythmic pattern sound like?”   
  


“It could be a slower than average heart rate, though his paralysis lends us to not being able to detect that form. An increased tempo is also a sign of distress, but the most common is a heartbeat that is irregular. Skipped beats or stuttering if you will.”   
  


Derek didn’t wait for the man to finish before he was releasing Stiles’ hand and leaning over Stiles to press his ear to the boy's chest. The vet caulked his head to the side as he waited to hear what the werewolf was hearing.    
  


A moment later Derek raised his head and shook it. “Seems fine.”   
  


Deaton smirked. “Then I will trust that a werewolf would know what a normal heartbeat is, if you think his is normal then there should be no concern. Should he experience chest pain after the paralysis wears off, he should see someone.”   
  


Scott interjected the veterinarian then. “We’ll keep a good eye on him.”   
  


Deaton smirked before nodding. “Yes, I expect you will...He needs rest and his shoulder should be iced occasionally to help with the swelling. Make sure that the ice is wrapped as the joint will be very sensitive as it heals and no longer than fifteen minutes at a time.”   
  


“Anything else we should look out for?”   
  


Deaton shook his head at Derek before turning and picking up the boy's vial of blood.   
  


“I will examine this and see if I can figure out what he was given, in the meantime you are free to take him home. Scott, I believe you know where we keep the pain medicine, he can't have any more for another four hours I’m afraid. If you need instruction on the right amount contact your mother.”   
  


The wolves nodded, not paying any attention as Deaton left them to go into his lab. Scott ran to the supply closet and grabbed an assortment of supplies, syringes, vials of morphine and some tablets for when the boy was able to take them, he returned to the table after stuffing the items in his pockets.    
  


Scott leaned over Stiles and smirked. “You’re a free man, let's get you to the loft huh?”   
  


Stiles remained unmoved by his friend’s declaration, smirking to himself Scott helped Derek move Stiles before the older werewolf picked up the smaller boy. Scott ran ahead and opened the car for them before helping to get the wolf and his cargo situated into the vehicle. Scott climbed into the front and started the car, driving around he turned and headed towards the loft.   
  


“You should call the sheriff and let him know that he’s okay.”   
  


Derek nodded and fished out his phone, quickly dialing the sheriff who answered on the first ring.   
  


“Stiles is going to be fine.” He interjected before the man could even speak his name.   
  


“You’re sure?”   
  


“Yes.”   
  


There was a shuddering breath from the other side of the phone call. “Thank god...Alright...I’ve handled things as best I could here at the station, had to make up some bullshit excuse as to where Stiles went and why he abandoned his jeep like that after crashing. Not my finest moment. I’ve talked to Chris already and he’s wrapping things up with the hunters, he said they weren’t going to get loose from where ever they were taken though he wouldn’t tell me much about it. He’s also mentioned that a cleanup crew will be heading into the woods in the next day or so and that we need to steer clear of it.”   
  


“Will do.”   
  


A deep sigh preceded the sheriff’s strained voice. “You watch over my boy Derek, I’ll swing by once this is all through and we can figure out where to go from here. Is he awake?”   
  


Glancing down to Stiles, the wolf responded to the kid’s father. “He’s still paralyzed, but he’s been responding more.”   
  


“Okay, good. I’ll see you all in a few hours I imagine.”   
  


“Alright.”   
  


“Bye.”   
  


Hanging up the phone Derek glanced down to Stiles and said. “Your father is going to come by the loft once he is done with his shift. Chris is nearly finished cleaning up this mess.” He then looked up into the rearview mirror and spoke to Scott. “We’re to stay out of that neck of the woods, some hunters are coming to clean it up.”   
  


Scott nodded his head before grumbling “They can have them.”   
  


Smirking at the irritated Alpha, Derek looked back down to the boy strewn across his lap.   
“We’ll be at the loft soon...The others are waiting to see you there.”   
  


The boy's tears which had begun to dry up after his prolonged visit with Deaton, began again, frowning at the boy Derek shook his head not understanding why his statement had upset the boy.   
  


“Stiles?”   
  


The boy continued to cry despite the wolf trying to make things better. “Everyone is safe, it’s done. You can rest now.”   
  


The boy's eyes continued to water despite the wolfs kind words.   
  


“He’s overwhelmed.” Scott’s voice was quiet, nearly invisible among the sounds of the vehicle.   
  


Derek glanced up to see Scott staring at him in the mirror, he gave a nod to the other Alpha.   
  


“He’ll be okay...He just needs some time.”   
  


Derek wasn’t sure if what Scott was saying was for Derek, Stiles or himself. Either way, he didn’t think it was working for any of them.   
  



	5. Coming home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles is taken back to the loft, the pack rallies around him. Derek makes a decision that will affect the entire pack and Scott does all he can to change his fellow Alpha's mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, another chapter, I got some extra time this week so I was able to bust this sucker out and start editing on next weeks chapter. So there will definitely be a chapter next week XD. Hope you all enjoy the chapter.

The Beta’s poured out of the loft before they were even in park. Scott grinned at them as he climbed out of the car. 

“He’s okay.” 

The Beta’s seemed to deflate like balloons with too much air upon hearing that. Scott walked to the back door and opened it, helping the other Alpha in moving Stiles. Once Scott had a hold of his friend he headed towards the loft’s open door. Walking past the Beta’s and trusting that Derek wouldn’t be far behind. Scott paused when he came to stand before the couch and the chairs in the room. 

“Put him down Scott, you can't hold him all night.” 

Glancing to Erica the boy shook his head before asking. “I was just wondering...Should we prop him up?” 

That caused the group to pause a moment. Derek joined the rest of them after closing the large door to the loft. He glanced at Stiles and then at the furniture he had in the main living space. He only had one couch and two recliners, none of which he felt were comfortable enough for the boy as he presently was. 

Sighing Derek said. “Let’s take him to the spare bedroom.” 

He only had one extra bedroom as he’d taken the loft space up above and normally the pack fought over who got to spend the night, though it was more like they fought over who got the bed. They all stayed there regardless. 

Scott nodded and turned to the right, heading down the small hallway that led to the bathroom and spare bedroom. The bedroom to his left was plain, Derek hadn’t felt the need yet to paint or add the bare minimum of furniture. Settling Stiles onto the soft bed, Scott paused when Erica ran around to the other side and started putting the pillow up against the headboard. 

“He probably wouldn’t like staring straight up at the ceiling.” She murmured carefully in explanation. 

Smirking Scott gave a nod and waited for her to adjust the pillows before adjusting how Stiles was on the plush surface. Gently Scott released his friend, frowning as he saw the paralyzed figure laying against the pillows no true sign that Stiles was even looking at them as his eyes just stared straight ahead. 

Erica gave an approving nod. “Well, at least you can see all of us now, right? Better than being on your back all night right?” 

Issac snorted before telling them off handily. “He’d be making an inappropriate joke about now.” 

Scott turned and smirked at the Beta. “Yeah, he would be.” 

Erica sighed before asking. “Any clue how long he’ll be like this?” 

“Deaton's looking into it.” Without another word Derek left Stiles in their care and headed back down the hallway, he was in dire need of a drink and a brief moment to himself in order to settle his nerves. 

Pulling a water bottle from the fridge he leaned against it a moment as he unscrewed the cap and took a large pull from the bottle, letting the cold water soothe his parched throat. Letting out a shaky sigh, Derek reminded himself that Stiles was fine. He was just in the other room and they hadn’t been too late, but for those few minutes as he took down the hunter...He’d truly thought Stiles was dead. That he had failed the boy and that there would be no going back, no chance to apologize for not finding him sooner. Shaking his head Derek took another long pull of the water bottle and started back down the hallway. Derek returned to find the group crowded around Stiles, frowning he opened his mouth to ask what was wrong when he scented the boy's fear. It was palatable on his tongue and left a bitter taste there that he knew the water wouldn’t be able to get rid of.

 “What happened?” 

Derek entered the room, standing just behind Boyd as he observed the paralyzed figure.

And just like that, the boy's scent calmed. Issac glanced between Stiles and where Derek was standing just out of the boy's line of sight and put two and two together. 

“Huh...He freaked cause you left.” 

Raising a brow Derek moved around Boyd in order to make sure that he was in the boy's direct line of sight. “Stiles I was only in the kitchen, no one’s going anywhere.” 

Scott nodded his head to back up the older Alpha. “Yeah, no one’s leaving dude.” 

Erica reached out and gently stroked the boy's hair. “It’s alright, I’m sure it won't be long before you can move again. We won't go anywhere alright, you just might not be able to see us all the time.” 

The boy's scent wavered a bit before calming once more. The tinge of fear being swept aside the longer the girl touched him. Erica smirked before leaning down to whisper into the boy's ear.

 “Do you want to cuddle Stiles?” 

“Stop teasing him!” Scott barked out. 

The Beta girl jerked back reflexively from the angry Alpha before she caught herself and sighed. “I’m not teasing him, he’s used to seeing us lay about one another.” She made sure that Scott heard her annoyance at his insinuating comment before glancing back to Stiles. “What is it you called it Stiles?... I can't remember.”

 “Puppy pile.” Issac supplied. 

The girl grinned before nodding. “That’s it, puppy pile. Do you want that?” 

“He’s never joined us before.” 

Boyd chimed in, Isaac glanced at his fellow Beta before shrugging his shoulders. 

“True, but he’s never been paralyzed like this before either.  He hangs on us though all the time, it's really no different and if he’s gonna freak every time we leave his sight it might be good for someone to lay with him or at least stay in his sight.” 

Boyd thought about it a moment before nodding, looking to Scott when the teen supplied.

“His shoulder is fragile right now, you have to be careful. Deaton said it could be dislocated again really easily.” 

The Beta’s all nodded. 

“We’ll be careful.” Erica gave the Alpha a sweet smile even as she climbed onto the bed with Stiles. When nothing happened Scott began to relax, it wasn’t long before Isaac joined her and Boyd moved to sit at the foot of the bed near Stiles’ legs. 

Seeing that the Beta’s had Stiles well in hand, Derek called out to them. “Let me know if anything changes.” He sent one final look to Stiles before leaving the room. 

Scott and the Beta’s frowned but no one voiced their confusion, instead, Scott turned and gave them all a smile. “Keep him company for me would you, I’ll be right back.” 

They nodded. 

“Sure.” Erica smiled back at him as she cuddled up against Stiles. 

Isaac moving to do the same even as he walked out of the room, Scott didn’t waste any time in heading down the hallway. He needed to speak with Derek, most of all about the Alpha’s sudden departure. 

The Beta’s watched the Alpha leave before turning back towards Stiles. 

Erica sighed against her arm before muttering. “They’re so stubborn.” 

Issac snorted at the girl's statement before adding. “What do you mean by that?” 

The girl gave him a bland look. “You didn’t notice how they both ran off?” 

“They do have some stuff to work out ya know.” 

The girl rolled her eyes before replying hostily. “It could wait five minutes.” 

“Enough.” 

Both Beta’s glanced over behind Erica to see Boyd frowning at them. “There’s been enough fighting today.” The normally silent Beta told them in an annoyed voice. 

Erica gave her boyfriend a weak smile before leaning away from Stiles to give him a peck on the lips. “You’re right.” She nodded, twisting back around. “Let’s worry about stuff later.” 

Isaac shrugged. “Fine by me.” 

Erica smirked back at her fellow Beta, leaning once more against the pillows and resuming carding her fingers through Stiles’ hair. “Won't be long Stiles and your dad will drop by.”

 The boy showed no signs of reacting to Isaacs statement, even his scent didn’t betray how he felt about it. 

Frowning the boy mentioned. “We’ll have to figure out if you're going to stay here or go home with him.” 

“He should stay here of course.” Erica piped up.

Issac looked to his fellow pack mate before reminded the girl. “I’m sure we’d all feel better if he did, but the sheriff does have say in this Erica. Stiles is his son.” 

The woman snorted before replying. “And he’s our pack.” 

The two paused in their bickering once more when Stiles scent changed around them, the previous contentment slipping away to be replaced by a bittersweet sadness. Issac’s eyes widened as he stared at Erica, the girl shushed Stiles before speaking.

 “Shh its alright Stiles, it doesn’t matter if you go home or not. We’ll visit and it won't be long before your up and moving around again. You can come to pack night like normal.”

The girl's declarations didn’t seem to help the boy laying between them. Stiles continued to cry and his scent didn’t waver from that of bittersweet sadness. 

Issac looked frantic as he tried to help calm the human. “Stiles, she’s right it's not a big deal and its gonna be a while before your dad gets here I’m sure...We’ve got time to just lounge around together.” 

Boyd frowned from behind Erica as they watched the human seemingly devolve between the two Beta’s until tears began to slowly stream down his cheeks. Both Beta’s were practically climbing up the walls in their attempts to pacify the boy. Sighing Boyd climbed out of the bed and left the room to go find one of the Alphas. It was obvious that something was bothering the teen and they weren’t enough to fix it.

 

*******

 

Scott leaned against the counter top as he watched Derek pitter around the kitchen, the other Alpha didn’t even glance his way when he came in. Sighing Scott tried to wait the other out, it wasn’t as if Derek was doing something altogether important let alone with a cause. He seemed to be focused solely on going around the kitchen moving various tools back where he felt they belonged after the last time the Beta’s had cooked. 

“You’re avoiding things.”

 “Scott.” Came the warning. 

Snorting the younger Alpha replied. “Fine, ignore me...We still have to deal with the fact that hunters came after Stiles.” 

He heard the Alpha take a shuddering breath from where he stood on the other side of the kitchen, Derek’s back was to him and from what Scott could see Derek was gripping the countertop tightly. 

Finally, Derek turned to face him at last. “I know.” 

“So what are we going to do about it?” 

“There’s nothing we can do Scott.” 

Frowning the boy shook his head. “There has to be something we can do, I mean I know Chris is taking care of the hunters and all but there has to be something else we can do in order to protect the pack.” Scott swallowed before uttering. “To keep him safe.” 

Derek looked at the younger werewolf a moment before stating factually.

“If you want him safe, you’ll either choose to push him out of this pack all together and leave him human or one of us will give him the bite and bring him into the pack for good. Those are our only options. We’ve come across this before, no hunters out there are going to tolerate us having a human in the pack. “ 

Scott growled. “It’s none of their concern, we’re a peaceful pack, Chris-” 

“We’ve seen how few hunters will give us a chance, without Chris things would be worse than they are now. Even he’s warned us about having human’s around us, the dangers it brings not only to us but to Stiles. It's only because he’s in beacon hills that more hunters haven't crossed our paths before now and sheer luck that Stiles hasn’t gotten hurt worse than before this. The only way for him to be protected is to be a part of this pack as a wolf.” 

Scott growled after listening to Derek’s words, shaking his head when the Alpha reiterated his point. “No, if he wants to stay human and be with us he can.” 

Snorting Derek jerked his hand towards the hallway. “They nearly killed him, Scott, they didn’t care that he was human. All they cared about was that he knew a pack, that he spent time with us and you should know better not everyone follows the rules, Scott.” 

Grimacing Scott took a moment to collect himself before stating. “He’s my best friend.” 

“I know.” 

“I can’t just force him to take the bite Derek, we swore up and down that it was his choice.” He pointed out harshly to the Alpha as if he assumed Derek would take that choice from Stiles. 

Giving the other Alpha an annoyed glare, Derek replied. “It’s his choice, but that’s the only way he won’t bring undue attention to himself. Until then, he’s at risk and he’s putting us at risk.” 

“What do you mean by that?!” Scott’s eyes flared as he slammed his hand on the countertop. 

Derek growled. “Watch it.” 

Scott shook his head. “What do you mean by that?” 

Sighing Derek told his fellow Alpha what he thought of the whole situation they now found themselves in. “If we don’t bring him into the pack as a wolf, he’ll always be in danger because he’s human and because he knows us. He’s fragile Scott, you saw the amount of damage they were able to cause, that was only a few hours and that was because they wanted to play a game.” Derek gritted his teeth at the notion of Stiles being used for such a thing but forced himself to point out. “They could have ended it at any time and we would have been powerless to get to him. We almost didn’t this time.” 

Scott tore away from the counter, breathing hard as he fought the instinct to shift in his anger. He knew Derek was right, that they had come so close to losing Stiles today. That the hunters could have killed him long before they go there, could have killed him in front of them even if they had gotten there faster. 

“You don’t have to like this, I don’t. I’d rather he stay as he is because I know that’s what he wants, but that’s not an option anymore. If outsiders are going to come here looking for our pack regardless of the code, they’re going to realize that Stiles is a prime target to get to us.” 

“I know!” Scott bit out as his claws bit into his own palms. 

Both Alpha’s ignored the scent of blood that was dripping from between Scott’s fingers, Derek couldn’t let it go though. He had to make sure that Scott truly understood what they were dealing with if either of them could live knowing that they could be the cause of the other teen's death. 

“Then we have to do something about it, we might not get this lucky next time. He might really be d-” 

“Don’t!” 

Derek sighed as the Alpha growled out the word, spinning around to bare his teeth at him. Derek replied in kind, flaring his eyes and growling. “You can’t just play ignorant Scott.” 

“I’m not.” The Alpha shook his head. “But he’s my friend, he’s part of our pack.” 

“He is, but he’s also human and humans are breakable.” 

Scott took a shuddering breath, letting his Beta shift fall away even as he turned towards the door of the loft. “I need to call his dad, update him.” 

Derek scowled calling out to the teen. “Now whose avoiding?” 

Scott froze just before the door. “I’ll find a way to make this work Derek, I have to because I’m not kicking him out of the pack and I’m not going to force him to take the bite.” 

“Then you’re going to be responsible for his death.” 

Scott grit his teeth as he stared at the front door, taking a few deep breaths the Alpha asked. “Are you going to just walk away?” Scott glanced over his shoulder. “Kick him from the pack if he doesn’t do what you want?” 

Derek was silent a moment. “He takes the bite or leaves the pack, I won’t have someone else dying because I couldn’t make the right decision.” 

Scott snorted even as he twisted back around and opened the door. “You’re not making the wrong decision Derek because you’re not choosing it, you're letting the hunters make it for you.” 

Derek growled but froze when Scott left the loft, slamming the door behind him. Snorting the dark-haired Alpha tore away from the kitchen and headed towards one of the chairs, he would have loved to stay isolated up in his bedroom but he couldn’t do that. Not with Stiles being as he was, the Beta’s might need him and Scott might take some time to calm down before or after he called the sheriff. Derek all but collapsed into the chair and glowered as he stared out the large window that made up the back wall. Derek’s mind caught up in what Scott had said, he wasn’t letting the hunters make the decision for him. He was just heeding the warning their game had brought. 

******* 

It took Scott a few minutes to calm himself, he was furious with Derek even if he saw some of what the other Alpha meant. That didn’t mean that he could just write off Stiles, let alone force him to take the bite because despite what Derek said that was the ultimatum. Taking a few deep breaths, Scott steadied himself before pulling his phone from his back pocket. He stared at it a moment longer before finally giving in, finding the sheriff’s number he pressed dial and put the phone to his ear. It barely took two rings before the man picked up.

 “Scott!” 

Wincing the werewolf replied. “Yeah, it's me. We got Stiles settled at the loft.” 

“Is he okay?” 

That was a matter of opinion, but the wolf replied. “Yeah, he’s doing okay. Deaton patched him up and now he’s being puppy piled.” 

“He’s being what?” The confusion lasing the man's voice had Scott blushing. 

“Uh...It’s this thing that we do...It’s kinda like cuddling?” 

The sheriff made a noise that sounded like a laugh. “Alright.” 

Sighing the Alpha muttered. “He’s enjoying it.” 

“That’s good.” The man sighed in relief. “Has he said anything abou-” 

“Sir, he’s still paralyzed...He can’t talk.” 

“Oh.” 

Biting his lip a moment Scott tried to find a way that he could best describe what was going on with his best friend without upsetting the sheriff more. “We can scent his emotions though and he seems to be pretty happy being in the puppy pile. He’s nervous when people go out of his range of sight, but I-I think he’s doing alright considering.” 

The sheriff was silent a moment. “Do you know what they did to him?” 

“I-some...I guess, I mean not really but it's kinda complicated.” 

“Alright.” The man seemed resigned to not getting answers. 

“We’ll take good care of him, when do you get off at the station?” 

“Still a few hours, but I’ll head straight there once I’m off. Have you talked to your mother about this?” 

“Not yet.” Scott admitted. “But I can call her and see when she can come and take a look. Stiles should be set for right now, Deaton bandaged him up and he didn’t really need much.” That wasn’t strictly true, but there was no way he was going to tell the man that Stiles had been electrocuted, let alone that he had a large gash on his stomach. 

“Alright, you keep me posted.” 

“Yeah of course.” 

There was a soft sigh. “Bye.” 

“Bye.” Hanging up the call, Scott stared at his phone a while longer. He wanted to throw it in anger but Scott knew that he couldn’t do that, the sheriff and his mom would need to be able to reach him. Taking a few more calming breaths, Scott turned to stare at the front door. He wasn’t ready to give up, it was time to have another round with Derek. He’d make the older Alpha see sense, Stiles wasn’t going anywhere.  


*******

 

Entering the loft once more, Scott’s eyes immediately found Derek. The other Alpha was sitting in one of the chairs beside the couch, seemingly staring out the large loft window that allowed the pack to see the forest that surrounded the house. Taking a deep breath Scott strode over to Derek, the other twisted to stare at him when he got close enough to be seen as intruding on the others space. 

“I told his dad that he’s settled for now.” 

Derek gave a nod. 

“We have to talk about this Derek.” The pleading note in his voice made him seem anything but an Alpha, but he was desperate. 

“There’s nothing to talk about Scott, I already told you.” 

Gritting his teeth Scott demanded to know. “So I split from this pack and took Stiles with me you wouldn’t care?” 

Derek gave him an irritated look. “I’d care, I just wouldn’t stop you.” 

Scott groaned in frustration. “Why are you doing this?” 

“Because its the only way to keep Stiles alive.” 

Scott shook his head. “But it’s not! You think things are just going to stop appearing in town? We’ve come across so many different creatures, hunters and everything that shouldn’t exist but does and in all of that have you ever known Stiles to just sit back at home?” 

Derek snorted. “No.” 

“Right.” Scott nodded. “He picks up that damn bat of his and charges headlong into it, you think he’s going to stop if you kick him from the pack? He’s not, he’s still gonna grab that bat and the only damn thing that’ll be different is that we won’t be there to help. Is that what you want?!” 

Derek growled in warning. “It’s not what I want! It’s what has to happen, he can’t be with the pack. It’s not safe.” 

“He’s not safe by himself either!” 

The two Alpha’s were growling, their eyes flaring at each other as they lost their tempers. Scott tensed a moment later his head turned when he noticed that they were no longer alone. Boyd glanced between the two of them before settling on Derek. 

“Stiles is upset.” 

Scott spun around to face the teen, his eyes red and his fangs showing only to fade as he cried out. “What? Why?” 

Boyd shrugged his shoulders before mentioning. “He doesn’t seem to care what we say, Erica and Isaac haven't been able to calm him down...He smells sad.” 

Frowning Scott walked past the teen and headed for the bedroom. Boyd watched the Alpha go before turning back towards Derek.

 “Are you going to give him the bite?” 

Derek sighed when it appeared that he was now going to have to field questions from the Betas’ as well as Scott. Shaking his head. “Not if he doesn’t want it.” 

The teen nodded his head before turning to head back to the bedroom. Derek watched the boy go before sighing. Rising from his chair he walked into the hallway and listened, he picked up the voices of his pack talking, they were obviously trying to reason with Stiles in some manner. Though their apparent pleading for the boy to calm down wasn’t being headed. Derek walked down the hallway and came to lean against the doorway, he frowned as he watched from the opening as Scott tried to console his friend. 

The Alpha had climbed onto the bed and was talking to Stiles, trying to figure out what was wrong with the silently crying boy by his scent alone. It wasn’t going well from what Derek could see. Issac was standing beside the bed, his place being taken up by Scott. He glanced to Derek before looking back towards the bed. Coming to some kind of conclusion the boy crossed the distance to the older Alpha and said. 

“He got upset when I and Erica were bickering.” 

Raising a brow the Alpha questioned.  “What about?”

 “Whether or not he should go home.” 

Sighing Derek shook his head at the youth, looking back towards the bed he watched as Scott attempted to cheer up the paralyzed human. 

“Are you going to send him home?”

 Glancing to Isaac before he returned his attention to Stiles, the Alpha replied. “I’m not going to send him anywhere Isaac, he’s healing and if the sheriff doesn’t mind him resting here than he can stay.” 

The boy smirked before saying. “Okay.”

Turning around to leave Derek was stopped when Scott called out to him. Looking over his shoulder he raised a brow to the Alpha.

“We still nee-” 

“Later.” Derek enforced some heat into his words, the Betas shifted nervously.

Scott looked annoyed at first but ultimately gave a nod, turning his attention once more to Stiles. Derek observed Scott’s reaction to Stiles apparent emotion roller coaster. 

“He’s fine Scott, let him process it all.” 

With that, Derek left the group to tend to the human. He already knew the outcome. Stiles would refuse the bite like he had when Peter had offered it to him and the boy would have to leave the pack for his own protection. Derek didn’t relish the idea of being forced to push the energetic boy away, he’d come to enjoy the spastic boy’s commentary, his snappy comebacks, and his intellect when it came to solving puzzles.  There was nothing for it though, a human had no place in a wolf pack and Derek refused to play a part in the boy's death.

 

*******

 Scott eventually gave up speaking to Stiles, instead choosing to hunker down next to the boy and simply lay there in silence. His hand on Stiles' arm. Issac came to lay behind him while Boyd returned to his previous position behind Erica. The group caged the boy in with their bodies and laid silently together. Stiles continued to cry, his scent laced with sadness, fear, and pain. Erica was trailing her fingertips through the boy's hair, while Scott kept his hand on the boy's good arm. Making sure that his friend knew they were there.  From his line of sight it would appear to the boy that he was alone, so the reaffirming touches were sure to help with the boy's anxiety.

 ******************************

 

Stiles had no way to explain to them why he was upset, he couldn’t even move his eyes at the moment. He didn’t know how to change his scent to communicate, he figured it was hard to fake emotions enough to change his scent. That wasn’t to say that he hadn’t tried, it got him nowhere and ultimately he was forced to concede defeat. 

So the boy was trapped inside his own body, in pain and surrounded by friends who couldn’t understand why he felt like his world was falling apart around him. Stiles had been overjoyed to see his friends after the fighting stopped. To learn that none of them were seriously hurt and that the bastards who had taken him, who had tortured him were dead. 

When the man responsible for torturing him for hours appeared above him, he figured that this was it. There was no way the pack could save him from the bastard who was holding a knife to this throat. Stiles was resigned to his fate and glad that the pack seemed to be okay from what he had been able to discern from the fighting. After he heard Derek bartering with the man, he wondered why they weren’t just attacking him. They couldn’t trust this guy. Then surprisingly enough the man honored their deal and dropped the knife. 

Stiles had been so relieved to see his friends looming over him. Safe. Whole. The trip back through the woods had been long and distressing, to say the least. Stiles knew he was safe, Derek was carrying him after all. But somehow as they walked through the forest his mind drifted enough for the shock of hearing one of the hunter's voices, to hear the man who had played a direct part in his suffering had been so distressing that he had lost it a moment. The pack had surrounded him. It was in that instance that he realized his scent was a powerful motivator. Just as the hunters had told him. 

Stiles had tried to fake his emotions after that, to try and communicate in some small way. It hadn’t worked. No matter how he thought ‘be happy be happy be happy’ nothing came of it, it seemed like only his negative emotions held sway...Or at least that held true until he was included in a puppy pile. Stiles had been amused to hear Erica’s idea and even more ecstatic to actually have it happen. It was weird to be a part of something that he’d only seen from the outside. 

It was pleasantly warm and despite being unable to really see any of them. Stiles knew they were there. The heat radiating off of their bodies and Erica’s fingers trailing his hair enough to ground him at the moment. When Isaac and Erica had first started bickering he had found it almost nice, the pair were constantly arguing over stupid subjects...But this time the subject was him. Whether or not he could stay with them, whether or not he’d be allowed or not.  Some deep seated doubt flared up when he heard them talking. The hunter's previous words about him not belonging making him wonder if he’d be forced to leave. If he’d be welcomed back once he had healed or not. 

He recognized now that he was a liability to the pack, he had gotten them into this situation because he was human. Issac had been shot and it was only because of some luck that the boy hadn’t been seriously harmed by the wolfsbane bullet. The through and through shot had saved the boy a lot of pain, but Stiles knew they couldn’t count on that type of luck holding. Not with them, their luck sucked after all. Then the subject of his dad came in and Stiles just couldn’t take it. Before he knew it he was crying once more and the Beta’s were freaking out and then it wasn’t long before Scott appeared once more, saying that everything was fine, that Stiles had nothing to worry about. But he did. He had a lot to worry about. 

Stiles saw when Derek entered the room and for a split second, he wondered what the Alpha was planning to do. After Isaac approached the man the two talked a moment before Stiles watched the older man walk away. A passing ‘he’ll be fine’ as he left them to it.

Stiles wasn’t fine though. Far from it, his body was radiating a fair amount of pain despite the morphine he’d been given. His shoulder felt like a solid block of immovable pain, any time someone shifted him it was a competition between his shoulder and his stomach as to which would hurt worse. He couldn’t fathom being carted around more on the same day, of his dad taking him home like this...There was no way his dad could handle this. He’d freak at the first sign of trouble, his dad didn’t have the wolves senses to tell him how Stiles was feeling. He had to guess, which granted the wolves had to do that too, but they had a better shot at being right because of their abilities to scent him. 

All Stiles wanted was to be able to talk, if he could talk he could handle being paralyzed. Screw moving his fingers and toes, Stiles just wanted to be able to ask questions, to be able to say he wasn’t alright. To beg for forgiveness. He could feel the tears sliding down his cheeks, but it was almost like it was happening to a different person. He didn’t really care that he was embarrassing himself in front of the entire pack, all he cared about was figuring out if he had a place with the pack or not or if he’d screwed things up because he was too weak to defend himself.

 

****************************

 

Derek stared out the window, the clouds had rolled in as the afternoon set in, it would rain soon he was sure. The dreary weather did nothing to help the Alpha in sorting out what he was supposed to do. He’d already told Scott their options, but Derek had to admit that like his younger counterpart he wanted so much for there to be another way. Sighing Derek shook his head, only to have it jerk around when he heard a knock at the door. Frowning as he realized he’d been too caught up in his own thoughts to properly pay attention to his surroundings, he stood and headed over. Pulling it open he let out a breath upon seeing the sheriff. 

“Sir.”

 “Derek, how is he?”

 “Resting, the others are with him. He was having some problems dealing with being paralyzed.” 

The sheriff nodded as he stepped passed the werewolf, Derek led the man around the living room and down the hallway. Derek motioned for him to enter the room and followed after the man, the group of wolves perked up upon seeing them. 

“Stiles your dad’s here.” Scott whispered. 

The teen sat up and tried valiantly to smile at the man, but the sheriff could see that it was forced. 

“Scott. How is he?”

The Alpha glanced to his longtime friend before sighing. “He’s okay I guess...He’s upset, but we don’t know why.” 

The sheriff nodded as he came closer, Erica and Boyd slid off the bed to give the man room to get closer. He nodded at them before sitting beside his son, gently placing his hand on the boy's thigh as the boy's left arm was bandaged to his chest.

 “How bad is he hurt?” 

Scott smirked a little before saying. “Well, like I told him, he’s gonna have a badass scar on his brow that he can use to call himself rugged. Get all the ladies that way.”

 The sheriff snorted at that, but let the boy continue.

 “His shoulder was dislocated...They left it too long so it was harder to put back. Deaton wanted it strapped down to keep it in place a while. There were a few other things, but Deaton took care of it and he should be fine soon enough.” Scott made sure to downplay how injured his friend was, he knew the sheriff and the man would rush Stiles off to a hospital if he showed any clear signs of something being amiss. There was no way for them to explain Stiles’ paralysis and so a hospital just wasn’t feasible, not unless Stiles’ wounds were worse. Thankfully they weren’t.

The sheriff nodded his head as he gazed at his son, it was then that Scott realized that at the present angle he was at Stiles most likely couldn’t see the man.

 “He can't move his eyes yet.”

 The sheriff glanced over to the teen before frowning, Scott sighed before reaching up and gently moving Stiles head against the pillow letting the boy see his father. The sheriff frowned until he realized that Scott wasn’t moving Stiles to be dramatic but to help the boy actually place him.

 “Stiles.”

 Stiles had tears sliding down his cheeks, the man smiled as he reached up and wiped them away. “Its okay, you're safe now...Its all taken care of Stiles.”

 Stiles continued to cry regardless of what his father said, the man looked up at the pack before asking. “How long will he be like this? Should we take him to the hospital?”

 They all shrugged before Scott told the man.

 “Deaton took a blood sample to try and figure out what they gave him...That way we might know how long it’ll last and his wounds are treated so it's really up to you about taking him in or not. Though I doubt they’d have any clue what to do about his paralysis.”

 The sheriff nodded his head.

 “Okay...That’s a good point, lord knows if they’d find something there that shouldn’t be.”

 Scott gave a nod. “They wouldn’t know what to do if they found something strange in his results, so it's probably safer to keep him here.”

 “Alright, your all okay?”

 The pack smiled at the man before nodding, despite the outward appearances they were fine. None of them had bothered with changing clothing, far too focused on Stiles at the moment to care. The bloody clothing could be changed and showers would clean away the blood dried on their skin.

 He sighed and shook his head. “What a day.”

 “I’m sorry.”

 The sheriff looked up to the teenager and frowned. “For what Scott?”

 The Alpha looked down at Stiles before saying. “It's our fault he’s like this because of what we are he was put in danger.”

 The sheriff sighed before saying. “Somehow I have a feeling he’d find a way to cause trouble without werewolves.”

 Scott smirked at that, unable to stop himself he muttered out. “Like the construction site right?”

 The man groaned at that before shaking his head. “God don’t remind me.”

 “What construction site?”

 Issac piped up from the corner of the room, Scott glanced over to the Beta and smirked. “I’ll tell you later, it happened when we were kids.”

 Issac nodded his head to the Alpha allowing Scott to refocus on the sheriff, the man was staring down at this son a look of longing on his face.

 “Sir?”

 The sheriff looked up at the teen before saying. “If this lasts more than today, I won't be able to look after him...I’m needed at the station.”

 Scott nodded his head before offering. “We can watch him, sir, I mean if you don’t mind.”

 “I trust you all to take care of him.” Noah smiled at them. “You brought him back after all, but I know it’s a lot to ask of you.”

“We don’t mind at all, he’s pack.”Erica piped in.

 When Noah saw the other nods from the teens, he gave a nod.  “Alright, then I’ll leave it to all of you to keep him out of any more trouble for me. Chris said he’d contact us when everything was settled with the hunters.”

 The wolves around him barely withheld their need to growl upon hearing the name ‘hunters’, as if sensing the hostility in the room the sheriff addressed the issue.

 “Chris mentioned that whatever those men are facing that its something that all hunters fear, he wouldn’t say what though.”

 “Don’t worry about it sir, he knows what he’s doing.”

 Noah nodded his head as he reached out and stroked his son’s brow, mindful of his bruises and bandages.

 “You had me, worried sick kid, gonna give your old man a heart attack. Won't make much difference eating all that rabbit food if I have one of those anyway right?”

 Stiles continued to cry as his father stroked his head, but Scott interjected. “He’s...Happy to see you.”

 The sheriff looked up at Scott before smirking. “Some werewolf trick I don’t know about?”

 The Alpha smirked before nodding his head. “We can smell things...Emotions can change a persons scent.”

 The sheriff smiled at Scott before looking down at his son, Scott sent a look to the Beta’s and upon seeing them nod in understanding turned his attention once more to Stiles and his dad.

 “I’m happy to see you too. I’ll make sure the jeep gets taken care of until your ready to work on it. It's a little worse for wear, but I think we can fix it up good as new.” The sheriff leaned over and gently embraced his son, pulling back a moment later he said. “I have Scott’s number and as soon as you kick this...Whatever this is, we’ll get you home.”

 Noah patted his son’s thigh before rising from the bed he gave Scott a thankful look before telling the pack. “Thank you, I- I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

 The Beta’s nodded their heads at the man, Scott rose from the bed before motioning Isaac to take his place. The Beta crawled onto the bed and placed a hand on Stiles to let him know he wasn’t truly alone. Scott followed the sheriff out of the room and back into the living room. Neither paid attention to Derek who was sitting in a chair reading.

 “I’ll call you if he changes.”

 “Thanks.”

 Scott nodded his head and showed the man out, once the door was shut did Scott slump against it.

 “What’d you do?”

 Looking up he saw Derek watching him closely, sighing Scott fessed up. “I lied to the sheriff.”

The Alpha snorted before saying. “I don’t think he’d be surprised to hear that Scott.”

 The other Alpha huffed. “I lied to him about Stiles.”

 Derek sighed. “What about?” He hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on in the other room and with how quiet they had been it made it all the easier for him to drown out their voices.

 “I told him that Stiles was happy to see him.”

 Derek frowned. “He wasn’t?”

 Scott shrugged. “He’s crying and his emotions were all over the place, he had a moment of happiness when he saw his dad but then it just kinda faded. I didn’t want to upset his dad and he probably assumed it was tears of joy or something.”

 “And Stiles?”

 The Alpha looked away from the man’s piercing gaze. “He’s sad...More than sad.”

 Derek gave an annoyed sound. “What do you mean more than sad?”

 Scott met Derek’s gaze and replied passively.  “He smells like winter.”

 The Alpha raised a brow at that, but Scott continued.

 “He’s cold...But not, I mean his temperature is fine, but his scent...It's cold.”

 Derek nodded his head before placing his book aside and standing up he took the few steps to come to stand before Scott. Placing his hand on the Alpha’s shoulder as he reassured him.

 “He’s not sad Scott, the coldness you smelt...It’s something else, the only way I can describe it is how we feel when the Beta’s have been gone too long.”

 Scott’s eyes widened. “That?”

 Derek gave a nod. “He just needs time. Stiles is overthinking things, his minds working in over

time most likely as he’s probably stressed from all that’s happened.”

 “But he’ll get better now that he’s with us right?”

 Derek gave a nod. “He’ll be fine, being close to us will help calm him down until he can regulate his own emotions again. Just stay near him, he’ll sort himself out.”

 “If that’s what’s best for him why don’t you join us?”

 Derek frowned, his hand dropping from the Alpha’s shoulder as he moved to leave. Scott’s hand clamped down on Derek's arm, stopping him. Glancing back at the Alpha Derek glared at the teen, undisturbed by the threatening gaze.

 “Stiles was happy when you were in the room.”

 The Alpha snorted at that and tugged at his arm when the boy refused to release him he growled.

 “He was...Well okay maybe not happy, but he was content...That’s the best we’ve gotten since we rescued him. That changed when you left the room.”

 Scott let his hand drop away from Derek’s arm as he turned and headed towards the room.

“He’s still pack, Derek...At least for now and we take care of each other right? That’s what a pack does.”

 Derek frowned as he watched the teenage Alpha enter the spare bedroom, leaving him standing in the middle of the loft. Sighing Derek shook his head, Scott was right of course, Stiles was still pack. He might not be for much longer, but right now he was.

 Glaring down the hallway as if he could burn a hole in the back of Scott’s head, Derek huffed when the teen was already out of sight, spinning around Derek snatched up his book before climbing the stairs to his own bedroom. Scott and the Beta’s could deal with Stiles...If he was truly needed they could come to get him, but there wasn’t any reason for him to lay about with them all. Derek settled himself on his bed and for a time stared up at the ceiling.

 Soon the Alpha was lost in his thoughts, of how horrible the last few hours had been for him and the pack. How losing Stiles might have well very destroyed them, Derek knew that it would have. Stiles was...Something that Derek couldn’t relegate to words, he simply held the pack together. The thought of losing a pack member knawed at him, his mind couldn’t help but remind him of losing his family. His wolf was raging inside him, trying to burst free as it wanted to fix things. It wanted him to fix whatever was broken to ensure the safety of all his pack and the wolf considered Stiles pack. That wasn’t surprising to Derek, he had long since thought of the boy as pack but he couldn’t let that attachment get in the way of the boy's survival. Sighing Derek closed his eyes, he didn’t think there was a way to fix this and he knew that neither he or his wolf would be happy about that.

 


	6. Talking to myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles finds that being unable to talk is harder than he thought it would be, luckily, Stiles is inventive and has found a way to solve that. Meanwhile, the pack tries to figure out how best to take care of their paralyzed friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter is early but that's the only way that I could figure posting this week. My mom was admitted to the hospital on Thursday so my free time is shared between the house/animals and the hospital. So, enjoy the chapter and hopefully, I can edit sometime during the week for next weeks chapter.
> 
> Side note: Italics are Stiles talking and are in 'brackets'

Stiles stared up at the ceiling, Isaac had gently moved his head for him and although silently grateful to not be staring at the side of the bed any longer. The view of his feet wasn’t much better in his opinion, the wolves had soon piled into the bed with him again. Both Alpha’s missing, though he knew Scott was only escorting his father out. Stiles didn’t know where Derek was, he’d caught glimpses of the Alpha and heard his voice a few times, but the man refused to linger around him. 

Stiles was sure that the older Alpha was blaming him, Stiles had put the pack in danger. He’d always promised not to be a liability to them, that he was capable of defending himself. Stiles had been wrong and what was worse is he couldn’t even claim that he’d failed to defend himself against some supernatural creature, no he’d failed to defend himself against other humans. How could Stiles hope to keep up with the pack if he couldn’t protect himself against other humans? Stiles knew the answer, he couldn’t. He couldn’t keep up with the pack, they’d always be faster, stronger, better...Stiles was just Stiles. Human. Weak. Fragile...Breakable. 

The tears hadn’t stopped flowing since they’d started and despite how horrible Stiles felt, the boy was surprised he had any tears left in him to cry. Sooner or later he had to run out right? He’d get dehydrated...Well, he was already dehydrated, he was thirsty but knew there was no way for him to tell the pack that much. Stiles also realized that for some inane reason that went beyond his understanding, he wasn’t hungry. Odd, seeing as he’d been with the hunters overnight and through the majority of a day all while being beat on. Yet, no hunger had reared its head, just thirst.  

Surely his stomach should have been eating itself by now? Yet he only had the mild annoyance of his body being devoid of food and not the actual hunger he should have been feeling. Then again there was no way they could feed him even if he was to be hungry, he couldn’t swallow. That’d be a stupid way to die Stiles realized, drowning on a glass of water or choking on pudding or some shit all because he couldn’t swallow.

if Stiles had it in him, he’d been laughing at his plight but instead, Stiles got to stare straight ahead, a white wall of nothing. A part of his mind started making a list of things to tell Derek to buy to make the wall more interesting, paint was at the top of the list. Stiles had already gone through a series of color choices, none of them were quite what he had pictured. He’d have to go get those stupid little paint samples to make sure he got the right one. Well, once he could move again, this design was followed shortly by kick ass posters...Stiles had yet to come up with some kind of poster that he thought that Derek would even allow. Killjoy that he was, but despite all of these efforts not to focus on his situation, his brain kept leading him right back too it. Stiles was about to focus himself on the small amounts of contact he had with the world around him, namely the pack laying on the bed with him. 

Stiles couldn’t see any of them, but he felt the heat from their bodies. Stiles could felt Erica’s fingers going through his hair and Isaac’s hand on his arm, they hadn’t left him. Not yet at least. The fear that was lurking in the back of his head kept getting stronger the longer he laid there, trapped in his own body and reliant on the pack. This darker part of Stiles knew it was only a matter of time before they did leave, that they’d see what the hunters had said was true, that Stiles wasn’t worthy of being with them.  Stiles feared what would happen then, how could he possibly live without them. Stiles wasn’t sure he could.

 

***************************

 

Scott re-entered the spare bedroom after seeing the sheriff out of the loft and speaking to Derek. The Alpha shook his head when Isaac made to move to give him room. The Beta looked nervous as to why he was being allowed to stay next to Stiles, but Scott smirked to the teen as he sat at the foot of the bed. Placing a hand on Stiles' leg. Scott was well within the boy's visual range which was what he was going for.

“hey man...How are you feeling?”

Figuring he had nothing to lose, Stiles began to reply to his friend's inquiry. It wasn’t like he could embarrass himself since no one could hear him and it might just help him retain some shred of his sanity. Stiles did not like being forced to stay silent, it went against his very nature. 

‘ _ I’m great, being tasered for hours, beaten, all just a normal Tuesday for me Scott. Honestly dude, how do you think I’m feeling? I hurt all over even in some places I’m pretty sure they didn’t abuse and I am currently freaking the fuck out! _ ’

Scott got no reply, of course, he hadn’t expected any. Though a small part had hoped that the boy's scent might change from the present fear, pain, sorrow filled scent the boy was letting off. Nothing happened though, the boy's scent remained the same even as Stiles continued to stare straight ahead as if he couldn’t see Scott at all. 

Shaking his head, the Alpha mused. “Our lives man...Crazy huh?”

‘ _ You think? Werewolves, hunters, Kanima’s dude our lives went from zero to crazy a long time ago. _ ’

Erica snorted as her head leaned against her arm. “Really?”

Scott sent the girl a look before saying. “You don’t think this is crazy? I mean I know today isn’t like normal for us, glad that it’s not but we’ve had some crazy stuff happen to us.”

Erica huffed before stating. “Really what was your first clue? The part where Stiles got kidnapped by hunters? The part where they shouldn’t have been here in the first place because we haven’t done anything? Or the part where Stiles is paralyzed because hunters are douchebags? Which part Scott do you find particularly crazy?”

‘ _ Uh she’s got a point, Scott, all this is kinda just fucked up man _ .’

Sighing Scott replied drearily. “All of it.” He glared when Erica gave him a prim nod as if she had proven her point. “But you know he was so damned excited when he found out I was a werewolf.”

‘ _ Who wouldn’t be? I mean your a living myth. _ ’

Erica rolled her eyes at that before mentioning. “He would...The nerd.”

‘ _ You love me and you know it _ .’

Scott laughed at her comment, they all knew that Stiles was a nerd. The teen didn’t even try to hide it, he was quite proud of his nerdiness. 

“He must have stayed up two nights straight binging on energy drinks and his Adderall just to find stuff out to try and help me.”

‘ _ Three actually _ .’ 

“Came to school on Monday and looked like hell, passed out in history class like a zombie.”

Boyd snorted at that before quietly mentioning. “Didn’t miss much then.”

Scott smirked before shaking his head. “No, though I did throw a lot of paper balls at his head. Which may or may not have drawn the attention of the teacher.”

‘ _ Gee thanks, Scott _ .’

The wolf smirked towards Stiles prone form before informing the rest of the pack.

“He didn’t wake up though, not till the teacher slammed a ruler down on his desk and scared the bejesus out of him. The best part is he started rambling off random facts about stuff, the whole class was in an uproar as he yelled out a random phrase from romeo and juliet.”

‘ _ You’re an ass, Scott McCall _ .’

The other Beta’s laughed at that, Isaac chiming in to ask. “Did he get detention?”

Scott shook his head and with a proud smirk on his face replied. “You know Stiles, he can talk his way out of anything.”

‘ _ No...I can't Scott. I thought I could...But I can't, I couldn’t do anything to stop them _ .’ Stiles darkening thoughts were sidetracked when Scott spoke up once more. 

“Course then he started telling me about all the lore he’d found on werewolves and-”

The Alpha paused in his story long enough to smirk at Stiles before stating.

“He stashed a whole length of chain in his locker, he was going to tie me up so I didn’t ‘wolf out’ on him come the full moon. It came spilling out of his locker right in front of coach...God, it was hilarious. I had the hardest time not saying anything after coach shook his head and said he didn’t want to know. Stiles just nodded and said ‘cool cool, were good here’. The whole locker room was staring at us like we were crazy.”

Stiles inwardly smiled, he remembered that.‘ _ Yeah I know, no one would look at me like I wasn’t a freak for a few days after that. They thought I was into some serious bondage kink or something. _ ’

“They weren’t wrong you know, besides that wouldn’t have worked.” Erica chimed in.

Scott nodded his head agreeing with the Beta, they’d been stupid kids way in over their heads. “Yeah, we know that now, but at the time we were scared. We didn’t know what to expect and we weren’t exactly on speaking terms with Derek. We’d just found out about all of this and were running scared.”

‘ _ Scared doesn’t cover it, man _ .’

Scott glanced back to Stiles. “He said he’d keep me in his basement and feed me rats.”

“Ew.”

Scott chuckled at Erica before stating. “He didn’t want to lose me and he obviously didn’t know that wolves required a bigger diet than rats...I think he was of the assumption that I’d turn into an actual wolf.”

_ ‘Would have been cool _ .’

Boyd snorted at that, but Isaac was the one to say.

“And the best he could come up with was rats?”

‘ _ Ya know what, you try and figure out how to pay for prime beef for your pet wolf in the basement, go on tell me how I was supposed to swing that one. _ ’

Scott smirked before shaking his head. “I think he was looking at pet shops as a food supply chain instead of a grocery store.”

‘ _ So sue me _ .’

The Beta’s had a good laugh about Stiles impromptu attempts to keep Scott as a pet. There was a brief pause between all of the Beta’s laughter when Isaac chimed in.

“After all of that, I really need to know about the other thing... You said you’d tell me about the construction site.”

Scott’s eyes widened a bit before he smirked, looking to Stiles he mentioned. “Well, it's not like he can stop me.”

‘ _ Total asshole, that’s what you are Scott McCall! _ ’

Isaac nodded his head as he sat up, keeping his arm on Stiles as he eagerly awaited hearing what the story was. Scott got himself comfortable as well before saying.

“Let's see...We were just barely in middle school. It was summer and we were running around, being kids ya know. Well, there happened to be this construction site a few houses down from his and they were building a new house and we were curious. Stiles’s dad had made us swear up and down not to go near it as it was dangerous.”

Erica snorted before saying. “Wonderful, I think I know where this is going.”

‘ _ You have no clue, for all you know we spray painted the joint and went for curly fries _ .’

The boy's chuckled at the girl's comment, Scott smirked before continuing his story.

“Anyways, so his dad went to work one day and we were bored. Stiles got it in his head that we should go check the place out since no one would know and we could get back with no one the wiser. I, of course, got dragged along.”

‘ _ Liar, you wanted to go _ .’

Isaac grinned at Scott before nodding. “What happened?”

Scott laughed at the eager Beta before saying. “We walked down the road, snuck into the construction site. No one was around so it was just the two of us and we were walking all through the place. They hadn’t built up the walls all that much and most of the foundation wasn’t even finished but it was still cool to us. There were supplies everywhere and we were toying around with stuff.”

“You didn’t shoot yourselves with nail guns did you?” Erica chimed in with a smirk as if she would have found that far too amusing.

Scott snorted before shaking his head. “No we did not.”

‘ _ As if, we’re better than that _ .’

Smirking Erica continued to trail her fingers through Stiles' hair as the Alpha continued his story.

“So we’d been there a while and we were joking around, jumping on stuff, running...Normal stuff for kids our age. Stiles was running around a pallet and then he was just gone. I heard him scream and I came running. He’d fallen six feet into a straight ditch in the middle of the floor plan, it was some sort of hole to put piping or something. Anyways, he fell.”

‘ _ It was a long way down dude. _ ’

“I’m standing at the edge of this hole staring down at my best friend who is laying there limp and I freaked the hell out.”

‘ _ Yeah you did _ .’

“I thought he was dead, he wasn’t moving and no matter how much I screamed he didn’t answer me. So I ran.”

“You left him there?!”Isaac said incridiously. 

‘ _ Yes, yes he did. _ ’

Scott gave the Beta a look before explaining. “I was like twelve dude, I freaked. I knew he needed help, but there was no one around. So I ran to go get help, long story short the sheriff was not amused to get a call from me saying his son was dead in a ditch.”

‘ _ He made you promise never to call him again like that, even if I was dead in a ditch _ .’

The Betas burst out laughing at the Alpha’s put outlook.

“He speeds over, grabs me by the scruff of my shirt and starts yelling for me to take him to Stiles. So I did, mind you he’s lecturing me three ways to Sunday about what he’s going to do to us, but that wasn’t the issue at the time. We get back into the construction site and we can hear crying. I was so damned relieved to hear Stiles that I nearly fell in the damn hole myself.”

The Betas chuckled at that, while Scott sent a look to Stiles.

“He’s sitting at the bottom of that damned hole clutching his arm and crying something fierce. See’s me and his dad and he just loses it.”

‘ _ You were crying too ya know, not that you’re going to tell them that. _ ’

“He’s crying and screaming for us to just get him the hell outta there. The sheriff didn’t even flinch, just levered himself down and scooped up Stiles. They had a tough time getting back out, but they managed it. Once they were out of the hole he was checking Stiles out, the kid was dusty as hell. Stiles had managed to break his arm on the fall but wasn’t hurt otherwise. The whole ride to the hospital the sheriff was paler than a ghost.”

Scott smirk slid a bit as he said the next part as he remembered something that wasn’t so amusing about the story.

“Turns out, when his dad jumped into the hole with Stiles, he’d seen where Stiles had landed. Two inches to the left or right and he woulda been impaled. There was rebar everywhere.”

The Beta’s flinch upon hearing that and Scott took a shuddering breath before saying.

“Got him into the hospital, his arm got a cast and then we got the biggest lecture of our lives. My mom is a nurse and all, there was no escaping her seeing us coming in.  Having your son being escorted to the hospital by the sheriff is not a good way to start the day. After the sheriff talked with her...Well, we were grounded for a long while and frankly, I’m surprised the sheriff didn’t follow through with his threat.”

“What threat?”

Scott smirked before saying. “He threatened to put monitor bracelets on our ankles so he’d know where we were at all times.”

The Beta’s laughed at that as Scott smirked towards Stiles.

“He didn’t though...I think his deputies calmed him down some, of course, it didn’t help that less than a year later Stiles fell down the stairs in their own house...Sheriff picked up pretty fast that there was no keeping him outta trouble.”

‘ _ You’re such an ass, leaving out the important parts and making me look bad. That wasn’t my fault and you know it, those stairs are evil. _ ’

Scott smirked at the paralyzed form of his friend before turning to focus on Erica as she asked in an amused tone. “How’d he fall down the stairs? Did he trip? He’s pretty clumsy.” She said in amusement.

‘ _ Umm rude. _ ’

The pack had long since gotten used to Stiles flailing about, but Scott snorted before shaking his head.

“He was playing leapfrog.”

“Huh?”The girl said confused.

Scott smirked before gesturing with his hands. “It's this thing we did when we were younger. You’d hop up the stairs on your hands and feet, bouncing like a frog and try to race each other to the top.”

Erica nodded, but was frowning a moment later she questioned the werewolf.

“How’d he fall?”

Scott shrugged before informing them all. “Missed a step...Went plummeting straight down the stairs backward.”

The girl's eyes widened at that as she turned to look at the human who couldn’t see her.

“Was he hurt?” Boyd asked. 

‘ _ Umm I fell down a flight of stairs backward Boyd, why wouldn’t I be hurt _ ?’

Scott smirked before saying. “Seeing as we were together it fell to me to decide if his injuries were bad enough to include our parents...We both agreed it wasn’t worth it.”

Boyd raised a brow at that while Erica and Isaac snorted.

“His dad gets home and were acting like spaz’s trying to cover up the fact that he can't walk normally. Took all of five minutes for the sheriff to realize something was wrong. Course we played it cool.”

The Alpha was smirking until Erica snorted and said. “You two are not cool and it’s not surprising that he figured it out so soon.”

Frowning at the girl he said. “He believed us.”

“For how long?” The girl countered. 

Sighing Scott admitted in a shameful way. “Half an hour.”

Erica gave him a smug look even as Isaac questioned. “Then what happened?”

‘ _ Nothing good let me tell you _ .’

“Then he might have asked us to do something that kinda revealed that Stiles wasn’t walking right...Needless to say, we ended up sitting on the couch while the sheriff ordered Stiles to take his shoes off.”

“His ankle was broken wasn’t it?” Isaac said amused. 

Scott shook his head. “Nope. Not even close.”

The Beta frowned before glancing to his pack mates who were all giving confused looked back at the Alpha as well.

“Then what was it?”

Scott smirked before saying. “Stiles couldn’t take his shoe off, it hurt too much. So his dad ended up taking it off for him and then we got to explain why half of his foot was black.”

“Black!” Erica cried. 

‘ _ I like to think that it was just a deep deep purple, but dad and Scott always said otherwise. _ ’

“Yep, the sheriff was about two seconds from calling 911 when we managed to explain it wasn’t frostbite or a snake bite. Nothing like that just stupid kids jumping up the stairs, so he drove us in and after another session of my mom glaring at us, we waited for a doctor.”

The Betas shook their heads at that.

“Yeah, it kinda sucked and we were bored. Stiles was so desperate to prove that he was fine that I and he were bickering about it. He said he was fine, I said your foots black. This went on for a while before he excailmed quite loudly that he’d prove me wrong by moving his toes.”

‘ _ I totally could have done that by the way, pretty sure I would have been fine regardless. _ ’

The wolf chuckled as if remembering something especially funny. Once he had collected himself he said.

“Before he had a chance to move his pinky toe my mom comes tearing in, tore the curtain near off the pole and starts screaming to him not to move his foot. Scared the both of us to death, not to mention the sheriff, he was pale standing there next to my mom. They’d caught us in time, but he was still shaken up.”

“What why?”

Scott shook his head before grabbing Stiles foot, he wiggled it a bit playfully before saying.

“If he’d tried to move his toes, he would have shattered three bones in his foot. They were barely connected. Would have required surgery to fix it and him walking on it all that time hadn’t done himself any favors of course. He was in this boot thing for weeks, it was hilarious.”

‘ _ Why do you find my pain amusing? Haven’t I been a true and loyal friend? _ ’

The Wolves gave him a look, but Scott wasn’t perturbed by it.

“You should have seen him. He knew his foot was fucked up and so he had no problem threatning to kick people with the huge cast. It would have hurt them more than him and it kept the bullies away for a couple weeks”

“But he would have broken his foot if he’d done that right?” Isaac asked confused. 

Scott nodded his head. “Yeah, but when you get picked on every day somehow the prospect of foot surgery is worth kicking some asshole in the shins.”

‘ _ Would have been worth it too _ .’

Isaac smirked at the Alpha. “I guess so.”

They turned when Erica spoke against Stiles' forehead. “You’re a trouble maker aren’t you?”

_ ‘I am...Sorry, but you love me anyway right? _ ’

Scott was smiling as he watched the pack, they were snuggled up close to Stiles but careful not to put too much weight or strain the boy's injuries. Over the course of his storytelling, the boy’s scent had changed a little. There was a small tinge of irritation in it which caused Scott to declare to his friend.

“If you don’t like me telling them about our adventurous childhood, your just going to have to find a way to stop me.”

The Beta’s gave the Alpha a cautious look, unsure if they should say anything to the man baiting the paralyzed boy. 

Scott ignored them as he leaned forward. “Remember I could always tell them about Charles.”

The boy's scent spiked so suddenly that the Beta’s winced, the level of the boy's irritation skyrocketing along with a scent that could only mean embarrassment. 

Erica smirked before saying. “Ooh that must be bad if he’s getting worked up about it.”

Scott spared the girl a glance to nod before telling Stiles. “Don’t worry, I’ll save that one for when you're being especially annoying.”

‘ _ Oh it is so on Scott, once I can talk again they are going to know everything. Everything _ !’

Scott smirked at his friend before letting out a big sigh. “Its been forever since I thought about all that.”

“It was years ago.” Erica muttered, before adding. “Besides, a lot has happened over the last couple of years.”

“Yeah...A lot.”

The Alpha twisted his head around towards the door, the Beta’s looked up at the same time to see Derek drift into the doorway.

“Hey.” Scott called to the older Alpha. 

The man raised a brow before saying. “Deaton called.”

The pack tensed, waiting to hear what had been said, the Alpha glanced towards Stiles still form before saying.

“Bastili toxin is illegal for hunters to use.”

The pack’s fear of what that exactly meant began to leech out into their scents and fill the room with the anxiety of the pack. Derek scrunched up his face a bit before giving them all a look.

“The creatures are apparently endangered and rare.”

“Derek, what does it do?”

The Alpha looked towards Scott before saying. “Deaton said that given the amount of toxin he found in Stiles’s blood sample it could be up to a week before he gets full function of his body back.”

“A week!” The Alpha cried.

‘  _ Are you shitting me! No that is not acceptable, tell Deaton to work his mojo or something and fix me. Sourwolf you had better find a way to fix this, I can’t go that long without talking. _ ’

Derek nodded his head before saying. “If we had more of the toxin he might have been able to make some kind of antidote...But the chances of us finding anything back in the woods is slim. Deaton already spoke with Chris and there isn’t any way for him to get a hold of anything not even on the black market.”

‘ _ So they dosed me and then ditched the rest in that hole in the ground that none of you know about, great! That’s just great _ .’

“Any side effects?” Boyd questioned. 

The Alpha glanced to his Beta before saying. “He might have some motor control issues for a while...Similar to nerve damage, but not permanent. Once the toxin is gone from his system his body will heal whatever residue is left and he’ll get back to normal.”

‘ _ And until then I’m a friggin limpet. _ ’ 

The pack sighed in relief to hear that. Derek glanced around to all of them before settling his eyes on Stiles a moment. 

Derek then looked to Scott. “You need to call your mom, Deaton said Stiles will get some control back within the next day or so, but until then he needs fluids as a minimum. Food will have to wait unless we take him into the hospital.”

The pack shifted when Stiles scent mutated to one of fear, Derek looked toward the boy giving him a scrutinizing look before saying.

“If we don’t, you will get hungry and a human can only go so long without food Stiles.”

‘ _ I’m fine Sourwolf, but please no hospital _ .’

As if sensing his friend's distress at the prospect of being put in a hospital just for food, Scott spoke up.

“He’ll be okay though without food for a day or so, so we could hold off taking him to the hospital unless he doesn’t change right? Just get the I.V. Put in and he’s good?”

Derek glanced to his fellow Alpha and nodded. “Deaton was mostly concerned about keeping him hydrated, to help flush out the toxin. We can hold off on the hospital for now.”

Scott sighed in relief before his head turned to regard Erica when the girl admitted.

“That won't work.”

‘ _ What why not? Come on Erica do not spoil my parade here girl. _ ’

The pack looked to her in confusion before she sighed. “Stiles was with them for hours, even if we just give him the I.V. For hydration and ignore his need for food for a day or so...He’s going to need to pee sometime right?”

The group blinked at the girl before Scott groaned. “Damn it.”

_ ‘I’ll hold it dude, please don’t take me to the hospital. _ ’

“She has a point.” Isaac said depressivly. 

Derek watched as the pack wilted under the strain of being unable to help Stiles, without being forced to take him to the hospital. Gritting his teeth a moment the Alpha grasped at straws before an idea struck him.

Derek was quick to ask Scott.“ As unpleasant as this all is...Could your mom perform a catheder?” Scott blinked a moment before looking back at Stiles. “Here or there it would happen Scott and if she’s capable of doing one-”

The Alpha nodded his head along with the man's reasoning, he smirked at Stiles before saying.

“No hospital for you man.” He patted Stiles a moment before turning his attention back to Derek.

‘ _ Thank god, your mom is a saint man and I take back all the mean things I said about you earlier. _ ’

“I’ll call her, she can do a catheter and set up the I.V...We’ll have to monitor his pain and change the saline and...The other bag but he’ll be good to stay here until he’s up and about.”

Derek nodded his head before turning to leave.

“Derek.” The man paused to look at the werewolf.

The teen smirked at him before saying. “Thanks”

Raising a brow to the teen Derek walked off back down the hallway, Scott turned and patted Stiles' leg.

“I’ll go call mom so she can come and get you set up...Isaac can you run to his house and get some clothes for him..Loose pants and-Oh no shirt for now.”

Scott said glancing at the boy's bandaged arm.  Isaac nodded and rose before Erica snorted and thus stilling everyone.

“Why not just ask Derek for a pair of pants? He’s bigger than Stiles so they’ll be loose enough right? Which means Isaac doesn’t have to take a trip into town.”

‘ _ Um...Because that is a very very bad idea, Erica, one does not ask Derek Hale for pants. That’s not a thing. _ ’

The two men stared at her a moment before Scott coughed a bit. “Uh if you wanna go ask Derek for a pair of pants, go for it.”

‘ _ Please don’t. _ ’

She rolled her eyes before motioning Isaac back onto the bed, the teen did as asked. Once Isaac was back in place she turned and shoved on Boyd. The man smirked and got up out of her way. The pack watched as she sauntered out of the room to go find Derek.

“Okay, then...With that done, I’m going to go call my mom.”

Isaac and Boyd smirked at the boy's awkward face as he turned and left them to see to Stiles.

“This is going to be interesting.”

Isaac looked to Boyd before saying.“Derek is going to flip.”

‘ _ I’m never going to hear the end of this and I’m going to be wearing Derek hales pants, Erica why don’t you just kill me now? Jesus, he is not going to be happy. Fuck my life. _ ’

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI The construction incident and the staircase incident really happened to me. Broke my wrist and broke my toes and yes everything depicted in those scenes happened including the rebar and my foot turning black lol. I was a horrible horrible child, at one point the ER staff knew me XD.


	7. Triage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melissa pays the pack a visit and does what she can to help Stiles overcome what the hunters did. Derek wars with his own stubbornness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter for you folks, thank you for all the kudos and comments. I love hearing from you guys so don't be shy XD.

Erica sauntered down the hallway in search of the older Alpha of their mismatched pack, it wasn’t hard to find Derek. He was lounging in the living room, walking across the living room of the loft she sauntered right up to Derek. Derek didn’t even respond to her entrance, but that was fine by her. 

Without any hesitation she demanded. “Pants now.”

That got Derek’s attention, the Alpha lowered his book and looked up to her before raising a brow.

“C’mon pants.” She waved another hand at him as if to speed him up.

Derek scowled at her a moment before stating in confusion. “You want my pants?”

Hearing the Alpha’s question Erica rolled her eyes when he didn’t understand. “Not the ones your wearing.” She clarified. “But I still need your pants.”

Derek gave a slow nod somewhat relieved that he wasn’t being asked to strip by his Beta, though it still left the question as to why she needed any of his pants. “Why do you need a pair of my pants, Erica?”

She rolled her eyes before replying haughtily. “Cause I want to tease Boyd, honestly Derek it's for Stiles. Scott said he’ll need a pair of loose pants for the catheter and instead of sending Isaac all the way into town, I figured since your bigger than Stiles yours would work.”

Finally latching onto what the girl was saying, Derek sighed. Putting his book aside Derek rose from his chair “Fine, I'll get you some pants.” He bit out a tad sharper than he needed too, but he felt it necessary given the odd request by the bossy teen. Derek made his way to the stairs that led up to his bedroom, only to pause and look behind him to find Erica following him. Frowning Derek asked. “What? Does he need something else?”

She pursed her lips before saying. “No.”

Tilting his head the werewolf dared to ask in an irritated manner. “Then why are you following me?”

Unable to hold back Erica taunted the Alpha. “Cause I wanna rifle through your underwear drawer. Derek, it pains me to say this but you’re not the most inclined to notice subtle details, let me pick out a pair of pants for him.”

Scowling at the girls insult he was about to tell her to go away when Scott walked out and murmured.

“She’s not wrong and she’s not going to stop until she gets her way.”

Glaring at the younger Alpha Derek asked in an annoyed voice. “How can I pick the wrong pants?”

Scott shrugged, truthfully he didn’t know how either but they both knew Erica would state a much. Scott smirked before waving his phone as he headed outside, silently telling his fellow Alpha that it was his problem. Glaring after the teen Derek turned to tell Erica to stay put only to twist around and find her halfway up the stairs. 

Growling Derek followed after her.  “Damn it, Erica.”

Derek heard her laugh as she opened his closet and shook her head, she turned just as he reached her to ask.

“Do you have any sweatpants?”

The Alpha raised a brow before saying. “Do I go out hunting supernatural creatures in any?” He challenged.

She rolled her eyes at his hostility. “You have to have something comfortable for when you’re just here.” She waved a hand around to show the loft. “Unless of course, you feel like admitting to going around nude in your own house.” She smiled deviously.

Derek glared back at the girl, not daring to comment on her little scheme, rather the werewolf thought a moment before sighing, he moved to a nearby dresser and rifled through some things before pulling out a pair of dark grey pants. The girl smiled at the sight of them and came to feel them.

“Good, that'll do.”

Derek shook his head as Erica stole the pants from him and headed back downstairs, he had no idea why she was so pleased with herself. They were just a pair of workout pants he didn’t wear much anymore. Coming back down into the loft Derek caught the barest glimpse of Erica disappearing down the hallway before his head jerked to see Scott coming back inside. The Alpha smirked at him before saying.

“Were all set, she’ll be here in an hour or so.” Then as if simply because he knew it would bother Derek, Scott asked. “Did Erica find something?”

Derek glowered at the Alpha before saying in a biting tone of voice. “Yes.”

Scott smirked before replying to the man’s curt tone. “Hey it's for Stiles, Stiles is pack.”

Derek’s glare didn’t relent. 

Sighing Scott asked the glaring Alpha. “Would you rather I sent Isaac into town?”

Derek shook his head before forcefully unclenching his teeth. “No, the pack needs to be here.”

Scott nodded his head a small smile gracing his face as if he approved of the man’s thinking. Scott walked closer, closing the distance between him and Derek to place his hand on the other Alpha’s shoulder.

“We're just taking care of the pack and you know she only did that to get a rise out of you.”

Derek snorted. “She goes back up there she’s losing a hand.”

Scott snorted at the lie. “Fine, I'll try and reign her in if we need any more clothes. You know she’s just happy to be able to help Stiles since there’s so little we can actually do.”

The older Alpha shook his head. “That doesn’t give her permission to go into my bedroom.”

Scott smirked. “Or go through your clothes?”

The growl and flash of eyes he got had Scott chuckling. “I’ll do my best to reel her in, but you know she’s not the type to shy away from conflict. Not anymore.”

“I've already heard that it’s my fault.”

Scott shrugged. “It is, but we just find it far too amusing to watch you suffer the monster you created.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “She’s not a monster.”

“Have you been shopping with her?”

Derek was silent a moment before shaking his head. “No, and I'm not going to.”

Scott snorted. “I said the same thing, so did Stiles, and Isaac, it’s only a matter of time before she gets to you.” Then because he couldn’t help himself, Scott added. “Besides despite all of this I’d still say shopping with Erica was more daunting than dealing with the hunters and saving Stiles.”

Derek shook his head, he had no intention to ever go shopping with Erica. The Beta most likely already knew not to push her luck and if she didn’t, Derek would have no problem in correcting that falsehood. Despite that, Derek found himself being forced to remind his fellow Alpha.

“He still has to choose.”

Scott’s smile from their earlier banter faded, his hand pulling back to slump at his side. The boy turned away and without another word headed back towards the spare bedroom. Derek couldn’t help but feel like he’d just crushed the boy's heart in his own hands, sighing Derek turned and headed back to his chair. The pack could tend to Stiles without him...Derek had no doubt that Stiles would refuse the bite and with it, Stiles would be forced to go. Derek would send the boy away to save him, it was the only thing he could do as the boy’s Alpha. Protect his pack, even if it meant hurting them.

 

******************************

 

Melissa only had what her son had given her to go off of when she headed towards the pack house, Scott’s first frantic call had nearly had her racing out of the hospital itself until her rational side realized that would be stupid. If Stiles was hurt bad enough to require significant help then he’d be coming to her not the other way around, so she’d forced herself to remain at work and wait for updates. When Scott had called her about setting up an i.V. And a catheter or all things, she’d called into question what was really going on. Even with these doubts, she threw together a kit and upon clocking out at the hospital headed to the pack house, prepared to walk into the unknown. 

She’d just reached the front door of Derek’s house when the Alpha himself opened it, she was far too used to being preceded in things to take offense at being listened too. 

melissa offered up a strained smile as Derek let her in. “How is he?”

“The same.”

She nodded her head and let the werewolf lead her through the loft and down a hallway to the spare bedroom, Melissa smiled at the sight of the Beta’s and her son curled around Stiles.

“Hello, honey.”

Scott straightened himself up as he addressed her. “Mom.”

Melissa smirked as she leaned forward to kiss her son’s forehead, pulling back she looked at Stiles and with a saddened look.

“Oh sweetie what have you gotten into now?”

‘ _ You don’t want to know. _ ’

The boy didn’t answer, but she didn’t expect him too, Scott had already told her what had happened. Giving a nod she turned her attention to the pack and said in a clear and authoritative voice. “Alright everyone out.”

The pack tensed instantly.

“Mom.”

She shook her head at her son before gesturing towards Stiles.

“If we were at the hospital you wouldn’t be allowed in until it was done either, I hardly think he wants you all watching while I put a catheter in.”

‘ _ I really don’t, I'm totally on board with them not witnessing this shameful moment in my life. _ ’

The group seemed to come around a bit, the Beta’s trickling out into the hallway to wait. Derek gave the still boy one last look before nodding to Melissa as he joined the Beta’s in the hallway leaving Scott to have the battle of wills with his mother. Melissa turned and shook her head before pointing to the hallway once more when her son didn’t move.

“Close the door too.”

“Mom.”

She held firm. Her glare showing she wasn’t about to give into her son’s pleading.

“He-Freaks out when we leave mom.”

She gave him an apathetic look before saying. “Sweetie I know, but trust me when I say that you don’t want to be hanging around while I do this. It's going to be uncomfortable for him as it is, I don’t think having you witnessing it is going to help things. So go outside, I'll let you all in as soon as it's done and you can hold his hand while I put the I.V. In alright?”

‘ _ Damn it Scott, listen to your mom! I don’t want you in here for this! _ ’

Sighing Scott nodded his head and begrudgingly headed into the hallway, shutting the door behind him he looked at the rest of the pack and muttered.

“How is it she can order me around like I'm not a werewolf?”

The others chuckled before Derek piped in. “She’s your mom, she could order you around if you were a slug.”

The others laughed at the boys put outlook before he grumbled. “Asshole.”

Derek smirked at the teen, a few minutes later the door was yanked open and Melissa smiled.

“Alright come on in.”

They filed in faster than she thought possible, she stood still as they raced past her and clamored to be near their friend. 

Isaac growled and turned to bare his teeth at the nurse. “He’s crying.”

Melissa didn’t take the action to heart but was a little relieved when both Scott and Derek got the boy under control. Taking a calming breath Melissa did her best to explain things to the nervous pack around her.

“I know he is, it doesn’t feel good when it goes in. He’s alright though and it’s done, he won't feel it anymore.”

‘ _ Doesn’t feel good my ass, you just shoved something up my dick _ .’

Isaac’s werewolf features which had flared upon seeing his friend in pain began to settle, Scott made sure to let the riled boy sit next to Stiles as he sat by the boy's feet. Mindful of the tubing that was under the blanket she had placed over the boy and clipped to the side of the bed was the drainage bag.

“I know Scott knows this, but for the rest of you. Watch the tubing, it’s connected to him and if you pull on it, it won't feel good. You could yank out the catheter and then I'll be right back here fixing it, other than that, you need to empty the bags at this mark.”

She showed them on an empty bag. They nodded to the nurse. 

‘ _ Let’s not do that...No pulling on the bag guys, I really don’t want to have to go through that again. _ ’

“Good, I changed him into the pants you left in here. So no worries about modesty or anything, Stiles is as dressed as he's going to get for a while.” She paused to smile at Isaac. “Now, I'm going to need you to move sweetie, he’s only got the one arm right now.”

Isaac looked up and nodded, moving out of the way so that she could kneel beside Stiles. A small tray was placed next to the boy as she figured out what to do.

“Well, this is harder than I thought.”

‘ _ How is this hard? You’ve stabbed me a million times by now, you should be well acquainted with my inner workings. _ ’

“What do you mean mom?”

She glanced at her son before saying. “You didn’t tell me about his wrists sweetie...I can't put an I.V. In his hands with them like this. It's infection waiting to happen.”

The boy paled at that, thinking that they had put Stiles through the catheter for nothing and that he’d have to go to the hospital. His mother however turned and looked at the boy, speaking out loud she muttered.

“I don’t like putting I.V.’s in elbows, they kink up and get disturbed too much. There aren’t many other options for this, none that don’t carry inherent risks to them as well. I’m not going to put one in his thigh, there’s just too much risk what with the catheter being there.”

‘ _ All of this just makes it sounds like what’s going to come is going to suck _ .’

The wolves listened intently to the woman before she sighed, turning to Scott she asked.

“You know him best Scott, I can try to put one in under his collar bone, near his heart, or I can put in a mainline. Once he’s better which one do you think is going to inhibit his motions the most? I can do either.”

Scott winced upon hearing all of it.

“What's that mean?” Isaac questioned the nurse.

‘ _ Uh yeah, definition please. _ ’

Melissa smiled good-naturedly to the boy before showing him with her finger as she placed it above stile’s heart.

“So, if I put a catheter in here we can access it, but there are inherent risks of that...Anything outside of arms and legs carries a higher risk...Course we don’t have much of a choice right now. If I put one here, it’ll be easy to access, but the tubing could get in the way once he starts to move around.”

She then lifted her hand up to Stiles' neck, causing the wolves to tense.

“The main line could be placed in his neck, it's accessible and the tubing is mostly out of the way. Stiles would be able to move about freely once it's in place as well. You’d have to becareful about the catheter coming out, but that could happen to any of them.” She turned to Scott and gave him a questioning look now that she was done explaining things to the rest of the pack. “You’re going to be the ones around him while this is sorted out, so you need to choose a line that won’t get in the way.”

‘ _ Either way, I hate this, you choose Scott. _ ’

“Mainline.”

Melissa nodded her head before looking through her supplies. “You won't like this Scott.”

‘ _ He’s not the only one _ .’

“I know, I hate these...But we're not leaving him.”

“Why do you hate them?” Erica asked in a sharp voice. 

Scott glanced to the Beta and calmly said. “It just looks...Wrong. You’re gonna smell blood, he’s not going to bleed much, but the mainline tends to leak a little. Once the I.V. Fluids go through he’ll stop. I know...Seeing it freaks me out and that was before I was a wolf and with our senses... You might want to wait outside.”

Erica shook her head defiantly, which made Scott smirk. 

“It won't hurt will it?”

Turning to Isaac Scott sighed. “It’ll pinch, but once It's in he’ll be fine, besides we’ll be able to give him more pain medicine easier this way.”

Isaac nodded his head as he watched melissa prepare the I.V. Catheter.

“Uh, mom?”

She nodded as she pulled on a pair of gloves once more.

“Can you narrate what you're doing?... Like uh with your patients.”

Melissa turned and gave him a strange look until Scott pointed towards Stiles and explained. “Stiles can't see what you're doing.”

She smiled and nodded now that she understood why Scott felt it necessary for her to explain all the steps she was taking. It was beneficial for not only Stiles but for the rest of the pack who were lingering anxiously.

“Alright Stiles I'm just getting the needle prepped, there won't be a needle in your neck when I'm done though okay. So don’t worry about that, It's just to pierce the skin for the catheter.”

‘ _ God I hate this. _ ’

Scott smiled at his mom, she always amazed him with how calm she was about things. She hardly ever flinched away from anything, not even some of the things they’d gotten into. Seeing him covered in blood-stained clothing was almost normal now, her goto response was ‘yours or theirs’. She hardly ever freaked out anymore at the sight of it.

“Okay, I'm going to clean your neck to make sure no bacteria gets into the I.V. It's going to be cold.”

‘ _ Yep, that’s cold and it smells bad too. _ ’

She swiped the alcohol swap down the boy's neck, making sure it was clean before tossing the swab into a growing pile of discarded supplies. She smirked when the wolves snorted a bit, trying to get the stench of the alcohol out of their noses. 

“Alright sweetie, I'm going to palpate your neck to find the best place for this catheter, but I'm not going to poke you yet.”

‘ _ Palpate away, I'll just be sitting here waiting for my body not to be a useless sack of potatoes _ .’

She gently pressed around the boy's throat before giving a nod.

“Alright, I'm going to finish prepping the needle sweetie. I’ll let you know when I'm going to poke you though, you just relax.”

‘ _ Cant do much else, not that I'm relaxed. Cause I'm not _ .’

The pack watched the nurse screw some components onto the end of the catheter before she leaned closer to Stiles.

“Alright, Stiles, just a little pinch and it’ll be done. One...Two...Three...Poke.”

‘ _ Ow _ .’

The wolves tensed when they smelt the boy's blood, seeing it flood the connected tubing in the woman’s hand. Melissa didn’t seem distraught by the sight of it though and that helped, she smiled as she continued to talk to Stiles.

“You’re doing so good honey, almost done. I’m going to disengage the needle and the tube will stay in place. It’s going to feel a little weird, but it won't hurt.”

‘ _ Everythings weird right now so that’s not saying much _ .’

They heard a click before she was tossing something into the pile and nodding.

“All done. I’m just going to tape this down and hook up the I.V. And you're all done.” She smirked at Stiles before looking to Scott. “Can you find a way to hang the saline for me?”

The teen nodded and stood up from the bed, glancing around Scott frowned, turning to Derek he asked with a pained face. “Uh, do you happen to have a coat rack?”

‘ _ Why the hell would Derek own a coat rack, Scott? He doesn’t own a coat, well besides his leather jacket but that is distinctly not a coat _ .’

The Alpha raised a brow before shaking his head. The teen nodded. “Okay, we need something stable to hang the saline bags on. Anything...So?”

Derek thought a moment before nodding. “Be right back.”

The Alpha left the room to go and gather something that Scott sincerely hoped would work, turning back towards his mom and Stiles he saw her finish taping the catheter in place.

“Alright, he’s all taped up and shouldn’t come loose at all. Once we get the bags put up I'm going to show you all how to administer the morphine, you’re going to need to get a piece of paper to write down when he has some and how much. If someone forgets and you give him too much, you could hurt him.”

‘ _ Let’s not hurt the Stiles, the Stiles is hurt enough thank you very much.’ _

The pack nodded and Erica raced out to get paper and a pen to record the boy's medication times. Melissa waited patiently with the boys as Erica came back with supplies in hand. A moment later Derek came walking in a standing lamp in his arms, the swirling iron decor branching out to look like antlers.

“Will this work?”

Scott beamed at the Alpha. “Hell yeah, it will.”

‘ _ Where the hell did you get that? Seriously Derek, have you been holding out on us? We’ve been telling you to get actual furniture and you’ve had that hidden somewhere? _ ’

Smirking Derek placed it in the corner, where Melissa had pointed. Once it was put in place the nurse proceeded to hang a fresh bag of saline.

“Okay. So lesson number one. This here controls the rate of fluid into his I.V., Do not touch this.”

‘ _ That means no, Scott _ .’

The pack nodded their heads. She then continued. “Good. Okay, so when you have to change his I.V. Bag. Which should be empty, you unlatch this here and just pop it off. The new one you just push in and latch back down. You’ll hear a click if you do it right.”

The pack nodded again, smirking melissa held up a syringe which she had prepared with Stiles’s next dose of morphine.

“So Stiles here only weighs around 147 pounds, that means you can only give him up to this much morphine in a single go. I’m going to prepare a few starter doses for you guys that way you won’t have to fuss over how much to give him, after that it’s up to you.”

‘ _ I'm not so sure we should be allowing them to be in charge of doping me up _ .’

The group patiently watched as she moved the piping of the i.V. Showing them one of the ports in the side of it.

“Alright, this here is a port. This is where you put the needle when you want to give him morphine. You unscrew the cap, put the needle in like so, and slowly depress the plunger. Once It's done, pull the needle out just like this...Screw the cap back on and you're done.”

‘ _ Sounds so simple and yet, from the few faces I can see they look like deer in headlights...I’m screwed _ .’

She smirked as she tossed the used needle away, she saw the trepidation in the majority of the teen's faces but didn’t let it stop her from continuing. She glanced towards Stiles before informing the group.

“He’s going to be good for about six hours now, so in about five and a half you should get ready to give him his next dose. Werewolf or not, wash your hands before handling his equipment. He can get sick.”

‘ _ Keep your cooties to yourselves. _ ’

The werewolves nodded their heads, smirking the nurse then instructed them.

“Always write down what time it is when you give him more morphine. Moving on, Deaton wrapped his arm up pretty tight, Scott said his shoulder was dislocated and was left out of place too long”

The pack nodded. The nurse made a small noise before continuing.

“Alright, don’t move or adjust those bandages, not until Deaton or I give you the all clear. His other bandages, however, are going to need to be changed. I can come in the evenings and do them, but mornings are up to you. I’m going to show you what and how to do this, but you need to decide if you're up to this.”

Scott nodded his head before saying. “If they can't handle it I can.”

‘ _ God I love you, Scott _ .’

The pack nodded their heads all the same behind the Alpha, giving them a smile Melissa said.

“Alright, so since I've never seen his injuries and this won't be as productive if I don’t know what you're dealing with, we're just going to change his bandages now as if they needed it.”

The group nodded their heads as Melissa leaned over Stiles, she gently peeled away the bandage covering the stitches over his brow.

“Oh good, okay. So this isn’t bad at all.”

‘ _ Umm, I have something to say about that Melissa. _ ’

The group sighed in relief to the nurses claim, she turned to them and smiled.

“You won't need to worry about changing this one every few hours like the others might need, but you should check on it to make sure nothings happening. Swelling, redness, oozing. That’s bad but so far he looks great and I wouldn’t expect any problems from this.”

She picked up a small tube and held it up, making sure the entire group saw it.

“This is antibiotic ointment. Spread it across his stitches at least once a day. Wear gloves.”

She reminded them, even as she spoke she went about covering the stitches once more. Taping over the bandage to assure it stayed in place.

The nurse leaned over and gently began unpeeling the bandage taped to the boy's stomach. Once it was free she threw it away and turned back to look at the wound, it was closed with the even stitches that Deaton had used to seal the wound. The pack was grumbling in small growls at the sight of the wound, well aware that it was where the blood that had been sprinkled around the forest had come from. 

Melissa ignored them as she looked at the wound, unaware that they were growling for more than just the reason that Stiles had been hurt, but also because of what the wound signified.

“Again, not bad.”

‘ _ You weren’t there when there was a knife-happy hunter, trust me it was bad. _ ’

Looking to the werewolves she held up the tube once more and twisted it to and fro to make sure they got it.

“The same thing applies here. You should be changing this dressing in the morning and I'll check it at night for you. We want to keep this as clean as possible, It's a larger wound with more stitches. I’m assuming it's deeper as well which means it has a higher chance of developing something, we want to prevent the chances of any bacteria getting in that wound.”

The pack shifted anxiously as she talked about the boy getting an infection, sensing their unease, Melissa tried to quell their fears. “Stiles is strong, so long as you follow the rules and wash your hands, wear gloves, and change his bandages. Stiles will be fine.”

‘ _ Hey, they got me away from those douche hunters. We’re golden now right? Just gotta kick this supernatural paralysis and we’re good to go _ .’

The group nodded to her as she moved to apply a clean bandage to the boy's stomach. Liberally coating the bandage before applying it to the boys wound and taping it down with was seemed like an excessive amount of tape.

“We can get lots of tape, do not skimp on the tape.” She cautioned them. “You don’t want this coming off, so wrap him like a mummy if you have to.”

‘ _ Scott will do that, you know he will. Don’t give him permission to do that to me, Melissa _ .’

They chuckled at the nurse's tone and she smiled.

“I'm serious, you don’t want this coming loose. Its sticky and gooey and will spread onto just about every surface you can imagine, so tape it down.” She glanced towards Derek. “Or you’ll need new sheets among other things.”

The teens chuckled when the older Alpha could only sigh and give a nod, Derek might be in a poor mood but he never took it out on Melissa or Noah. The werewolves sighed in relief as they heard the nurse joke with them, moving to the boy's wrists melissa glanced to Scott to ask.

“How bad?”

Scott swallowed before shaking his head. Giving a nod melissa began to unwind the coband, then the gauze, finally the wounds came into view. The growls of the pack were distracting, but Melissa forced herself to pay attention to the boy's wrists. Turning it this way and that before sighing.

“Okay...This can get tricky. These are pretty deep, but as they heal they’re going to be open to infection. The scabs are going to break open and bleed. You need to keep this as clean as possible.”

Looking up to the pack, she ignored the flared eyes and instead instructed them.

“I would suggest that you make sure that he’s had his morphine before handling the changes of his bandages. Things like this are very sensitive, especially once they start to heal.”

_ ‘I don’t like the sound of all of this...Granted I can feel it, but I was kinda hoping that it was more mental than physical. Guess I was wrong. _ ’

Taking a breath she gathered up some fresh supplies and showed them a small bottle.

“This stuff goes a long way, but if you run out I can bring more. Pour some on a gauze pad and gently wipe down his wrists.” Looking up to Scott as she wetted some gauze she admitted. “This is going to sting and until his skin heals up, it's not going to be comfortable.”

His jaw tensed, but Scott nodded. Melissa gently began wiping the boy's wrist clean, the wounds still oozing blood. She heard some of the pack growls while others whined, she could only assume that they were sensing something she couldn’t. Once she was done, she looked back up.

“Once It's clean. Gently pat it dry, don’t rub. Put some of the antiseptic cream on the bandages and wrap his wrists. Firmly, but not too tight.”

‘ _ That hurt. You were not lying on the stinging part, Jesus Christ that burns _ .’

She showed them what she meant by placing a gloved fingertip between Stiles wrist and the bandage she was wrapping.

“If there’s no breathing room you’ll suffocate the wound. Wrap it in gauze and then secure it with coband. Any questions?”

The pack was silent as she set about tending to the paralyzed boys other wrist, when she was done she looked up to find them they staring at her. She looked from face to face before glancing to her son.

“Scott?”

The boy smiled faintly before shaking his head. “How do you do this every day?”

‘ _ That is a very good question _ .’

She smiled at him before saying. “It's my calling.” Melissa went about discarding of the used materials in a biohazard container she’d brought with her. Securing any sharps and biohazards before peeling off her gloves and stuffing them inside it as well. Melissa placed the supplies she’d brought for them beside the bed and finished packing away her own things before rising from the bed.

“Alright, he’s set for a while now. If Deaton’s wrong about him regaining mobility in a day or so we're going to have to move him.  I don’t want him going more than a day if we can help it without eating, especially not since he’s healing. His body needs all the fuel it can get.”

‘ _ I can go far longer than just a day, anything if it means I don’t have to go into the hospital _ .’

“Can you put in a feeding tube or whatever?”

Looking to Erica the nurse shook her head. “I know how too, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving him here without someone trained in it. Stiles could aspirate and your so far out here.” Melissa shook her head at the thought of such a thing. “No, if his situation doesn’t change we have to take him in.”

Erica nodded her head as she looked to Stiles.

“Deaton will be right, Stiles will get better and won't need the hospital.”

Scott said, hoping to help his pack as their scents betrayed their worry for the human. 

‘ _ God I hope so, I really don’t want to be admitted for supernatural poisoning. I don’t think they’d know what to do for that. _ ’

Melissa smiled at her son, he’d grown up in the last year. She showed them the basket of supplies she had brought and explained.

“This should be plenty until tomorrow. I’ll bring more tomorrow night when I visit. If anything changes you call me or Deaton. If he gets a fever, or something looks wrong. You don’t wait, do you understand?”

The group nodded to her, assured that they understood the severity of the situation she turned to face her son. Smiling she hugged him before pulling back.

“He’ll be okay Scott. You guys will take good care of him and I'm only a call away.”

Scott nodded his head before saying. “Thanks, mom.”

She nodded before giving Stiles one last look. “I’ll see you tomorrow Stiles, you stay out of trouble and behave for them alright?”

‘ _ Yes ma'am. Though I can't really do much to get into trouble, not more than I'm already in at least...Still, I get your point and I will do my best to behave _ .’ 

Smirking melissa turned and left the room waving them off when they went to show her out. Giving a laugh and saying ‘i know the way to my car, stay with him’.  The group slowly reclaimed their positions near Stiles. Isaac remained off the bed though, Scott smirked before calling the Beta out on it.

“He’s okay Isaac, you can lay next to him.”

The Beta frowned before glancing to the boy’s neck. Scott smirked before saying.

“Just be careful of the tubes. Here I'll help.”

Isaac watched with wide eyes as Scott snatched up a tub and flung it away.

“Scott!” The teen cried. 

The Alpha turned and raised a brow. “What?”

“You-you can't do that.”

‘ _ What’s he doing?’ _

Frowning Scott was about to ask what he meant when Derek stepped in. “Its fine Isaac, he didn’t break the tubing. They’re pretty resistant.”

‘ _ I don’t like the sound of that. _ ’

Catching onto what the problem was, Scott nodded his head. “Yeah dude, it's fine. Just don’t yank on it, you can throw it around all you want. Its got enough slack to it.”

Scott picked up the excess tubing and whipped it around a little like a jump rope. Erica snorted before saying.

“That’s just wrong, put that down.”

‘ _ Scott whatever it is your doing I want you to stop it right now. If It's bothering her, it sure as hell would bother me.’ _

Smirking Scott laid the loose tube down and motioned for Isaac to come over. The teen helped the Beta onto the bed and showed him that he wasn’t even near the tubes in Stiles'’ neck and therefore couldn’t hurt him.

“See your fine, he’s fine.”

Walking towards the end of the bed Scott pointed towards the tube of the boy's catheter. “Don’t throw that one.”

‘ _ You’re so funny, I'm dying of laughter. Stop messing with the tubes man, it’s gross and weird _ .’

The others snorted at the boy's humor. Smirking Scott continued. “Trust me, I'm kinda used to this medical stuff. If you guys can't handle it I can.”

“Were fine.” Erica pouted. 

Scott smirked at the putout girl before baiting her. “So you’re gonna change his bag then?”

The girl seemed to pale a little before she swallowed and with as much conviction as she could say. “Sure...Whatever.”

‘ _ That was a lie if I've ever heard one, nice try though. _ ’

Scott snorted before saying. “You have to be careful ya know...The bags can leak.”

She looked appalled at that before she said. “You boys always know how to make a mess of things, don’t you? Fine, you want to get Stiles pee on you be my guest, I'll take care of doping him on morphine.”

Scott rolled his eyes at the girl before saying. “If your careful nothing will happen, I was just warning you. Sometimes the connector’s get finicky and I'm not sure I like the idea of you doping Stiles up”

The girl smirked good-naturedly at Scott before trailing her fingers through Stiles' hair some more.

“He doesn’t mind do you, Stiles?”

‘ _ Uh, sure no problems at all. I like being drugged, so far It's been a blast _ .’

Scott rolled his eyes again before pointing out. “He can't respond at the moment and you don’t speak for him.”

“And you do?” Came the snide retort.

Before things could escalate Derek stepped in. “Enough. If you want to be in charge of making sure he gets pain medicine fine, but you better write things down and make sure you don’t under or overdose him.” Assured that Erica understood, Derek turned towards Scott. “Scott if you think you can handle the catheter than fine, you have the most experience out of all of us anyways.” He sent them both a glare. “Stop bickering about who does what.”

The pair settled down as they listened to Derek tell them off, turning to Isaac and Boyd Derek told the two. “You two can figure out who’s going to help with his bandages and changing his i.V. Bags.”

“What about you?” Came the haughty tone from Erica, a small smile was on her face for catching the man in his attempts to avoid having to do anything. 

Derek sent a glare her way before saying. “I’m the Alpha.” Derek turned and walked out before the stunned girl could say anything. 

Scott snorted at his fellow Alphas response. “I think he takes that too seriously sometimes.”

‘ _ Ya think? _ ’

Erica sighed before muttering. “Whatever, I already wrote down his latest dose and his bandages are taken care of until morning. There’s nothing more to do here.”

‘ _ Please don’t leave me _ .’

Scott nodded his head towards the girl, figuring that she was about to get up and leave. Instead, the girl twisted about to stare back at Boyd and told the man.

“You should go get your book, it's going to be a long night.”

The man nodded his head as he rose out of the bed, Boyd glanced toward Erica and then Isaac before asking. “You want anything?”

Erica shook her head, but Isaac piped up. “Grab me a soda will you?”

The man nodded his head before walking out. Scott smirked to the Beta’s, inwardly pleased that they weren’t going to just leave Stiles to stare at a wall.

“What are you going to do?”

Jerking his head over to Erica he saw the girl smirk at him, sighing Scott glanced over his shoulder before telling her. “Work on Derek.”

“Huh? What do you mean work on him?” Isaac questioned. 

_ ‘That is a very good question Isaac, I concur what do you mean Scott? _ ’

Scott shook his head before muttering. “It's an Alpha thing...I need to go talk with him about some stuff. You guys good here?”

Erica scowled a moment, not liking the fact that she was being excluded from what was going on. Finally, she nodded. “Were good.”

‘ _ We’re not good, Scott you’re lying something is up. What’s wrong with Derek? _ ’

Giving a nod Scott stood up, patted Stiles' leg and headed out the door,  he passed Boyd on his way into the heart of the loft and told the man to keep an eye on things for him. The man agreed before returning to Stiles room and the rest of the pack.

 

***************************

 

Scott wasn’t too surprised to find Derek lounging in his favorite chair before one of the great windows in the loft, he sat down across from the other Alpha and patiently waited for Derek to acknowledge his presence. Ten minutes went by before Scott’s patience broke.

“Fine be an ass, look we need to talk about this.”

Derek’s lips twitched when the boy called him out on ignoring him, without looking up he questioned the boy. “Hmm?”

Growling at the Alpha sitting so nonchalant, Scott said one word. “Stiles.”

The Alpha glanced up over his book before returning his eyes to the pages. “We already have.”

“No, you decided and walked away.”

The man was silent a moment before he turned the page in his book, glaring all the harder at the man Scott said. “So that’s it then? That’s your decision?”

“I already explained things to you.”

Scott shook his head. “No you told me how it was going to be, you didn’t explain jack shit to me, Derek. How is it fair to any of us? To Stiles to just say ‘sorry since you won't take the bite were done.’”

Scott heard Derek sigh before the man placed his book in his lap.  “I never said it was fair Scott.”

Frowning when the other Alpha admitted to the whole situation being unfair Scott demanded. “Then why do this?”

“Because we have to.” Derek replied calmly, not giving into his own temptation to get angry.

“I don’t understand why it has to be that way.”

Derek was well aware of the fact that Scott didn’t wish to abandon his friend, he didn’t wish to either but he couldn’t sit by and be complacent in Stiles’ death.

“I know. Its Stiles’s choice and if he wants the bite fine if he doesn’t that’s fine too.  I was never going to take that choice away from him Stiles just can't stay human and stay with us. It's not nice, it's not fair, but it is what it is.”

Before Scott could try to interrupt him, Derek quickly continued. “A human doesn’t belong with a pack of wolves, look at what all’s happened since Peter bit you. How lucky we’ve been when It's come to the human’s around us, their not even a part of the pack Scott. Stiles is and look what our enemies were prepared to do to him.”

Scott looked away, but Derek continued.

“If they had managed to kill us, they would have left him to die Scott. They planned on killing him regardless of what happened to the pack and he’s human.”

Derek saw the younger Alpha swallow thickly at his words. “We don’t have to do this.”

“I'm not doing this to be an asshole, I'm doing this because that’s what an Alpha does. They make decisions for the pack and they don’t have to be nice or fair, but they are made.”

Scott nodded his head before he finally met the other man’s eyes. “And if I refuse? If I won’t do that, what will happen?”

Raising a brow Derek shook his head. “What do you mean?”

“If I refuse to leave him alone. To shun him from the pack. Am I kicked too?”

Derek couldn’t help but snort. “You’re an Alpha.” He blandly retorted just in case the other had forgotten.

“That’s not what I meant!” Scott bit out.

Sighing Derek muttered truthfully. “You know our pack is...Different, there’s never been a pack with two Alpha’s in it, not like ours. Alpha’s fight for control over Beta’s, neither of us wants complete control of the pack and that suits us just fine. We balance each other by sharing the responsibility and if you don’t like my decision about including Stiles in the pack then you have to figure out what that means for you.  I won't allow Stiles to come here anymore, not once this is through.”

Scott glared hotly at the man before jerking his hand towards the hallway. “And them?”

It hurt terribly to even consider the pack breaking up, but Scott was forcing his hand. Taking a calm breath, the older Alpha answered. “If you break from the pack, the Beta’s can decide which Alpha they wish to go with. They’ll have to decide what they can live with on their own terms.”

Scott snorted before saying. “You know that they’ll be conflicted either way just like you know Isaac would go with me and I know Boyd and Erica would go with you. They’d hate it, being separated from each other, being separated from Stiles.”

Derek nodded his head before stating. “My decision isn’t going to change because of that. If your pack decides to welcome a human, to put him in danger than that is your decision. My pack won't be taking part in that.”

Growling, Scott couldn’t help but flash his eyes at the other Alpha. Derek’s did the same in kind, the two glared at one another a moment before Scott rose from his chair.

“Fine. Once he’s well enough we’ll leave.” Scott walked away, but not before throwing out one last remark over his shoulder. “I would have thought someone who’d lost one family wouldn’t be so eager to throw away another just cause things got hard.”

Derek glared at the teen’s back until Scott rounded the corner. Looking down to his lap he flung the book away from himself in frustration.

 


	8. Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pack's bonds are tested and a rift is forming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure if I'd get this chapter done on time, but I just finished editing it. I'm coming down with a cold so not feeling the hottest, but luckily I finished this and thus you get a new chapter. Enjoy.

The Beta’s didn’t say or ask anything about what had gone on when Scott returned, the Alpha’s scent alone told them something bad had happened. They had, of course, heard the raised voices from the loft space, their advanced hearing picking up small amounts of Alpha’s yelling. Instead, they fell into an uneasy silence. Scott was sitting at the foot of the bed, despite Isaac’s quiet offer to move. Scott had shaken his head before taking his place at the foot of the bed and was busy toying with the edge of the blanket covering stile’s feet.

_ ‘Whats wrong Scott? _ ’

The tenseness in the room only seemed to get worse the longer the silence lasted. Until finally Erica, ever the bold one spoke up.

“So what happened?”

Scott glanced up to her a scowl on his face, well prepared to tell her to stay out of it.

Erica stared back at the Alpha cooly. “We might be able to help” her tone was reserved and that seemed to break Scott. 

He sighed and shook his head. “Sorry...But no you can't help...I-there’s nothing to fix I guess. It's done.”

“What is?” Issac cautiously asked. 

Scott spared him a glance before looking towards the ceiling as he spoke. “Issac, you're in my pack.” It was a statement of fact rather than a question.

“Yeah”

“You're my Beta.” Scott continued only to be interrupted.

“Hey, so are we!”

Scott looked down from the ceiling and shook his head at Erica, the girl jerked back as if she’d touched wolfsbane until Scott spoke up.

“You’re and you aren’t...Derek is your Alpha. Me and Derek are both Alpha’s and we both hold a lot of power over this pack, but ultimately he is your Alpha. He is your pack. Issac left Derek’s pack to join mine when they had issues in the beginning.”

The girl frowned before questioning. “Okay...So why does that matter?”

Scott looked back down to the frayed edge of the blanket he was fiddling with in some lame attempt to make this entire affair as painful as it was. “Our packs are breaking away from one another.”

“What?”

_ ‘What do you mean break? That sounds made up Scott _ ’

Scott nodded his head. “Me and Derek don’t agree on how to handle the aftermath of...The hunters and the threat they brought to our attention. Derek and I don’t agree with how to solve it and gave me an ultimatum, I gave him one back and...” Scott looked towards Stiles and gave a small smile before looking to the rest of the pack, his focus going to Boyd and Erica.

“It's ultimately up to you, but I don’t expect you to leave Derek. I kinda hope you don’t even if you don’t agree with him...But I understand if you agree with me more than him on this and want to stay in my pack.” He shifted his attention abruptly to Isaac. “The same goes for you Isaac, you might be my Beta but you can decide who your Alpha is and if you want to stay with Derek that’s fine.”

The Beta’s watched Scott warily for a moment, waiting for him to finish speaking before any of them dared to question what was going on.

“What...What happened?” Issac questioned after sending a look to his fellow Beta’s and seeing that they were just as lost as he was. 

Scott sighed before he looked up to Stiles a bitter smile on his face. “My pack has a human.”

They glanced towards Stiles before nodding to Scott as if that wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world.

“Um yeah, he’s been with you since the beginning. This isn’t new Scott.”

Smirking to Erica, the Alpha shook his head. “That’s the problem.”

She frowned back at him, but the teen explained it to all of the Beta’s before any more questions could be asked.

“Stiles is human, he’s vulnerable and fragile, he’s got a target on his back because he runs with wolves. Our enemies won't care that he’s human, they won't care that he’s not a werewolf. All they’ll see is some way to get at us. Those hunters proved that today.”

The Beta’s were too busy shaking their heads to what he’d said to catch onto the fact that Scott had turned his attention onto the human in his pack. Stiles.  Swallowing tightly Scott looked into Stiles' eyes and said. “Derek said if you refuse the bite, you can't be a part of his pack. That a human had no place here...Because you’re not like us.” Scott looked back down at the blanket he’d been messing with for the last few minutes. “He doesn’t want to be held responsible for if we get you killed because you’re human.”

_ ‘No. _ ’

The Beta’s were tense as they listened to the Alpha, Scott shook his head before saying.

“ I told him that was bullshit and that I wouldn’t...I can't push you away. I can't just leave you, you stood by me. I-you’ll always have a place with me, with my pack. You don’t have to be a werewolf Stiles, there’s no pressure man. I’ll take you as you are, human, fragile, clumsy and spastic.”

Scott smirked at his longtime friend. Tears were spilling down Stiles’ cheeks now, his scent telling those around him that he was sad. 

Scott shook his head. “Its okay man, whatever happens between me and Derek isn’t on you. It’s because of the hunters...Well, that and because he’s stubborn.” He shook his head before stating firmly. “Whatever happens, it's okay.”

‘ _ But it's not, it's not okay. This shouldn’t be happening Scott, please just- just think about this for a minute _ .’

Having said what he needed to say to Stiles, Scott looked towards Erica and Boyd.

“I just wanted to warn you is all, it's why he’s staying away. Derek- I think he thinks that the sooner he distances himself from Stiles, the better.” Then as if thinking better of it, continued. “You don’t have to stay here, I can take care of Stiles until he’s well enough to leave. Derek might be right about the whole separating as soon as possible.” Scott shrugged and with a tired fashion, the Alpha muttered. “Whatever you decide to do, it’s your choice and I won’t hold it against you.”

Erica and Boyd never got a chance to offer up a reply as Isaac shook his head violently before yelling out.

“You’re my Alpha!”

Scott smiled a little at the boy's declaration. “Okay, okay. If that’s how you feel.”

Issac nodded his head before turning himself into Stiles good shoulder. “You’re pack, you’re pack, you’re pack.”

‘ _ Isaac, it's okay...I-it's okay. _ ’

Nobody said anything as the boy ranted into Stiles’s body, they were all well aware of his separation issues. Abandonment was something that they all strove to reinforce as being in his past, abandoning Stiles must have brought up quite a bit of bad memories. They all looked up when Boyd suddenly rose and silently left, Erica’s mouth came open but she never said a word as her boyfriend left.

“It's okay Erica, it's his choice.”

She looked to Scott and shook her head. “None of this is okay Scott, but there really isn’t a choice to be made.” She tore off the bed and ran out of the room.

sighing Scott looked to Stiles and said the only thing he could think to say, the only thing that he felt needed to be said. “This isn’t your fault.”

‘ _ Yeah, actually it is _ .’

Stiles couldn’t hold back his tears even if he had control of his body, which he didn’t, so they rolled down his cheeks to splash onto his bare chest. Issac had curled himself gently around Stiles, his face buried in the teen’s arm. Scott gave a shake of his head before moving from the end of the bed to take where Erica and Boyd had been sitting. Scott gently placed a hand on his friendship, letting Stiles know he was there as he laid his head on the pillow next to Stiles.

“You’re family Stiles, you’re pack. You always will be.”

‘ _ I'm breaking the pack apart, what kind of family could I possibly be for that to happen? You need them more than you need me. I’m just human, a stupid stupid human. _ ’

 

**********************************

 

Derek lifted his head up from his pillow as his ears registered the heavy footsteps coming up his staircase, the pack knew better than to go into his bedroom without his permission. So either something had happened or...Oh, Boyd was angry. 

Raising a brow, the Alpha stated in surprise. “Boyd?”

The Beta growled at the Alpha, his eyes flashing as he barked out. “Stiles is pack”

Derek sighed, it appeared that Scott had finally clued in the Beta’s as to what had been going on behind their backs. Raising himself onto his elbows Derek replied calmly.

“I know.”

That seemed to confuse the Beta because Boyd’s deep scowl which had been pinching his face slid away, the Beta shook his head in confusion before gesturing towards the loft space below.

“Then why?”

“Because I won't take part in Stiles death.”

Boyd frowned at him, but Derek cut off anything the man was about to say. “If Stiles stays with a pack, mine or Scott’s he will get killed Boyd. Stiles is human, he doesn’t heal like we do. All it would take is one bullet, one stab, one anything.”

Boyd shifted upon hearing that, obviously unsettled by it. Derek didn’t relish having to point any of that out to the peaceful teen, but it had to be said. 

“Stiles is pack to you and I understand that that’s why you should go with Scott.”

The Beta’s eyes widened up hearing his Alpha’s suggestion, the suggestion to leave him for another Alpha.

“But-”

Derek shook his head. “No, Stiles is pack to you, it's as simple as that. You don’t want to see him go, to lose him right?”

Boyd nodded his head. “Then you agree with Scott that he has a place among a wolfs pack. Despite him being vulnerable, being at insurmountable risk to his own health if you can’t let him go for his own sake then go with Scott.”

Boyd frowned before asking. “You want him to leave the pack because you think he’ll live longer?”

Derek nodded his head. “If Stiles stays with us if he stays human. More hunters will come, more creatures will come and we won't always be this lucky. All it will take is one slip up and he won't come back but if he leaves the pack, Stiles can be human. Stiles can live a normal life and not be wrapped in the supernatural world that surrounds us. I’m prepared and willing to let him go because I refuse to be the reason that he dies.”

Boyd stepped backward as if he had been physically punched.

“That’s bullshit!”

Both men twisted to see Erica standing there at the top of the stairs, she was glaring past Boyd directly at Derek.

“Erica.”

The Beta in question snorted at Derek before saying. “You send him away after he’s been seen with us for over a year and you think all those freaks, those hunters are just going to say ‘oh he’s no longer with them so he must just be a normal human now’ bullshit. They'll go after him and the difference will be we won't be looking for him when he suddenly does get caught in the crosshairs. We protect one another Derek, a pack is a family, we’re Stiles’s family, his pack. You can't just decide to push him away and hope he’ll be spared, cause he won't, everyone in beacon hills has seen him with us. All you’ll achieve is sending him out there to die under the guise that you’re not responsible, well we are!”

Boyd glanced from his girlfriend to Derek to see what the Alpha had to say about that. The Alpha was frowning, but not in the ‘you shouldn’t have said that’ kind of way and more in the ‘I'm thinking really hard’ kinda way. Finally, Derek looked to Erica his mind apparently made and said.

“Go with Scott.”

She growled at Derek before twisting towards Boyd. “I thought you were with this jackass, I'm glad I was wrong.”

Boyd raised a brow at that but glanced nervously towards Derek. The Alpha was still reclined in his bed, not affected by the girl's name calling. 

Erica cast one last glanced towards Derek and said. “You know this is what they wanted right?”

“Who?”

“The hunters, to break the pack. That’s what they wanted and sure they thought they’d do it by killing Stiles, but they were wrong, weren’t they? All they had to do was shove the fact that he’s human in your face and you turn your back on him. You’re letting them win, letting them break our pack apart because you're scared.”

The Alpha sat up, his eyes flashing as he growled. Erica hunched backward before catching herself. Standing tall she yelled out.

“Well, I'm scared too! I’m scared that someday Stiles might get hurt and we won't be able to save him, that someday he might die because he loves us, but unlike you Derek hale, I'm going to love him back. I’m going to protect him as long and as fiercely as I can and hope that day never comes. At least that way if it does I'll be able to say he was pack, that I did the best I could to protect him. A few days,  a few weeks or months or years with him are better than a lifetime of not knowing him because that stupid dork who talks way too much about nothing, in particular, is pack. My pack. So if you want to be alone for the rest of your life because you're scared of losing him, you better find a better reason. If your scared of losing people cause they die then why the hell did you bite us? Werewolf doesn’t mean immortal, Stiles taught me that.”

She gave a nod to Boyd before stomping down the stairs to return to Stiles’s room with the others, Boyd waited until she was gone to turn to the growling Alpha.

“She is right, we might heal faster...Be immune to things, but we can be killed. I’d rather be with all of my pack for a short time, then be alone again.”

The man turned and headed down the stairs, leaving the Alpha to think about what had been said. Derek watched him go and the moment he was alone he let himself fall backward into his bed. Closing his eyes, the Alpha tried to focus on his breathing. To calm his racing heart as his mind told him. ‘They’re leaving you’. Swallowing against the tightness in his throat and chest. The Alpha took a deep breath and tried desperately not to howl out his pain.

 

***************

 

Both Scott and Isaac perked up when they heard footsteps, the younger of the two leaned forward to peer over Stiles and look at Scott. Silently asking what he thought, Scott frowned but shook his head. They both glanced towards the doorway when Erica waltzed back in a frown on her face before either of them could ask what the girl was doing back there, she pushed herself onto the bed.  Shoving Scott a bit to get closer to Stiles and laid her head on the boy's hip, Scott blinked down at the girl before stuttering.

“E-Er-Erica?”

“Shut up.”

‘ _ Uh okay, this is new. _ ’

Blinking the Alpha frowned before he asked. “What are you doing here?”

The girl huffed but refused to move from her spot, instead choosing to answer them from where she lay.

“I thought it was my choice”

Scott blinked in shock a moment before he stammered out. “Uh yeah- yeah it is.”

“Good.”

_ ‘what the hell is that supposed to mean? _ ’

Issac smirked at his confused Alpha, deciding to help a little the boy said. “I’m glad your with us.”

‘ _ Oh...Oh okay...Uh cool, I like you too ya know, when you're being like this and all _ .’

Scott looked from Isaac down to Erica before he smirked. “Me too”

The girl's tense form seemed to relax some after Scott had spoken. “He’s an ass.”

“Uh...Boyd or-.”

“Derek. Boyd is wonderful.”

Scott could only nod, though he found himself confused a moment, sighing he couldn’t help but mutter.

“I have no idea how two members from different packs can date so...”

‘Talk about awkward.’

Erica snorted before she shifted her head to lean back into Scott, looking up at the teen she said.

“Boyd’s with us.”

Frowning Scott shook his head. “Then where-”

“He’s talking with Derek, no doubt telling him what an idiot he is in a few of words as possible.”

‘ _ pft yeah that sounds like Boyd. _ ’

Scott smirked at the girl's sarcastic tone. “Oh, um okay...Wait. If your both-”

“Derek will be alone.” Erica replied softly, her earlier mirth gone. “We told him, Stiles is pack, Scott. If both of you had chosen to cast him out...I don’t know what we would have done, but I doubt we would have stayed.”

‘ _ You’re leaving him, you're actually leaving him...For me? _ ’

Scott’s eyes widened upon hearing that. “You’d become omega’s for him?”

Erica glared up at the shocked Alpha before questioning him. “Wouldn’t you?”

Scott blinked before he smirked. “Yeah, yeah I would.”

‘ _ How...I can't believe this, you’d abandon a pack for me? But I'm just a human, I'm not even a wolf. _ ’

Nodding Erica twisted back around and settled against Stiles' thigh once more. “He’s stubborn, but i-i hope he changes his mind.”

Scott sighed, letting his hand drift down to pet the girl's hair. “I hope so too.”

‘N _ o. No. No. This can't happen, this can't be happening. You got me out, away from the hunters...Everything was supposed to be fine now.’ _

“He hasn’t stopped crying.” Erica said softly.

“No.”  Scott replied abysimally. 

The Alpha was once more laying back next to his friend. His hand having been moved to rest on the side of stile’s neck as Erica was shoved in between them and using the boy's hip as a pillow.

“Knowing him he’s overthinking things.”

Scott snorted at the girl before saying. “More than likely.”

‘ _ I'm not overthinking things. Look at what’s happening. You're all going to just leave Derek, leave him all alone and for what? For me? No, wolves stick together, a pack sticks together. I don’t want this, I don’t want this!’ _

The wolves glanced towards the door when Boyd came strolling back in. He glanced at his girlfriend, laying against Stiles and then to Scott who was behind her. 

Scott coughed before saying. “Uh, I could move?”

Snorting the Beta shook his head before making his way to the other side, mindful of the boy's catheter tube, he sat by Isaac’s feet.

“He change his mind?”

Boyd glanced to Erica and shook his head. The girl sighed, Boyd frowned a moment before looking up to Scott. “Maybe you should talk to him?”

‘ _ Yes- yes brilliant plan, Scott go do that _ .’

Scott shook his head. “Been there, done that. Derek needs to come around in his own time Boyd if he doesn’t make the choice for himself than this won't work. He’d just resent us and Stiles.”

The man nodded his head before glancing towards the paralyzed boy. “He cries.”

Scott nodded his head. “Yeah, he- I think he’s upset about all of this.”

‘ _ No shit Scott, of course, I'm upset about all of this. You shouldn’t be doing this, you should be dropping my ass off at the hospital and never looking back _ .’

Boyd frowned at the sight of the boy's fresh tears, he gently placed his hand on the boy's leg. “We’re here, we won’t go anywhere.”

‘ _ I know, I know and you shouldn’t be here. Come on please please guys just go, go and be with Derek. You need to be a pack, please I'm begging you don’t do this. _ ’

Yet they heard nothing of the boy's pleading, they could only smell the saltiness of his tears and the ever-present cloud of sadness. As night fell around them, the group settled in. It was decided that someone should remain at all times by Stiles, though that was hardly surprising giving the boy's current state. Then the argument on who should stay and for how long began, they finally drew straws. Issac was the one to be chosen to stay with Stiles in his room, the rest of the pack would be crashing in the large loft space. Close at hand, but not underfoot. Scott was nervous to leave his friend, though he trusted Isaac.

“We’ll be right down the hall if you need us.”

Issac smiled as he curled into Stiles, taking the place that Scott had occupied so as not to accidentally disturb Stiles catheter or I.V. Scott effortlessly changed the boys. I.V. Bag gave Stiles another dose of morphine which Erica marked down and after checking his drainage back and finding it not in need of being dumped. Nodded to Isaac and followed the others out into the loft space.

 

***************************

 

Issac curled up against Stiles, his hand gently laying on the boy's abdomen. Mindful of his wounds. Boyd and Scott had laid Stiles out flat in the hopes that he’d be comfortable enough to rest, as none of them were sure if Stiles could actually sleep as he was. The debate of closing his eyes was cut short as Scott remembered Derek’s previous claims of how it would feel to be blind and paralyzed. So the boy was left laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Issac was quiet a moment as he listened to the others settle in down the hall.

He smirked before whispering to Stiles. “Ten bucks says Scott sneaks in here by midnight.”

Even feeling like the worst person in the world, Stiles inwardly smiled. Stiles soon found that being paralyzed, being utterly helpless was not the worst thing to happen to him. The worst thing to happen to him was that Isaac fell asleep and he couldn’t. Stiles stared straight ahead seeing nothing but a dark roomed ceiling. 

_ ‘I-I can't do this, how-how can I possibly do this for a week? I’ll go insane _ .’

Except for the small breaths he could hear Isaac taking, there was no noise. Nothing to focus on, just mind-numbing silence.

‘ _ This is worse than death, or at least I think it is. I mean Scott should have known better than to just lay me here like a fuckin log and say goodnight...Granted they don’t know that I'm wide the fuck awake with nothing to do. Nothing I can do. _ ’

Stiles muttered to himself. His thoughts finally drifted back to the previous conversations he’d heard, his mind having nothing better to do than focus on the present situation he found himself in.

‘ _ I'm breaking the pack apart. _ ’

Just thinking it, thinking of the chaos he had caused in the course of one day and one night broke him. How could he ever hope to make this right? Stiles initial thought was to wait until he could speak and then talk to Derek and Scott, try and mediate everything, but then he realized that the chances of him being able to move at the same time as talking were slim. Derek would get fed up and just leave the room and until he could chase after the man, Stiles would be stuck. 

Sighing to himself Stiles knew that the best thing he could do was wait, something he hated to do mind you, but it was his only choice. Once he got his voice back he’d tell the pack not to leave, not to abandon Derek and then once he could walk again...Well, if things hadn’t changed and the pack wasn’t back to its normal self, then Stiles would do what he had too...He’d leave. It tore at him to think of leaving them, but he’d do it, he would force himself to leave the pack and then they could remain together. Stiles would keep his distance from the pack and let them be together as they were supposed to be,  another year or so and he could make arrangements with his dad and be gone from beacon hills before anyone was the wiser. Once he graduated Stiles could just ship himself off to the furthest college he could find and know with certainty that his friends were safe and together now that he’d be out of the picture. Despite knowing that his friends wouldn’t get it, he knew his father would understand, maybe not agree, but at the very least understand and that meant that no matter how hard Scott tried his father wouldn’t betray his location to the wolf. Stiles could make this work.

_ ‘I can fix this, I can. I know I can. I can make this right and if I can’t...I’ll find some way so that the pack can heal without me. _ ’

 

***********************

 

It was a very long night, not just for Stiles, but for everyone. Scott was tense as a board as he tried to sleep down the hall from his incapacitated friend. Boyd and Erica were just as tense, though part of that had to do with the fact that they had made the big decision to stay with Scott’s pack instead of Derek’s. Derek was fighting every instinct he had to not fight for his pack, to not challenge Scott and let the winner take all. Issac woke every few hours, fearful he might have harmed Stiles in his sleep. And Stiles, well he didn’t sleep at all.

 

**********************

 

Issac was sitting up in the bed next to Stiles when a gentle knock sounded on the door. Smirking Isaac leaned over so Stiles could see him and put a finger to his lip as if playing a game. He wasn’t sure if Stiles were awake or not, there was no way to tell, but just in case he was Isaac decided to let him in on it. 

‘ _ You’re evil Isaac, you know he’s gonna stand there freaking out about waking the two of us. _ ’

The werewolf was trying to hold back making any noise as another gentle knock sounded.

‘ _ He’s going to hit you upside the head man. _ ’

Issac tilted his head to the side as if hearing something, which perked stile’s interest. A moment later the boy was snickering as he whispered.

“He bought it, he went back to the loft.”

‘ _ Oh man, you are so dead when he finds out. _ ’

Issac reclined back against the pillows, making sure his hand was gently laying on Stiles as he whispered.

“I hope I didn’t hurt you during the night, I don’t think I did, but...It's so hard to tell.”

‘ _ I'm fine Isaac, the only bad thing was when you drooled a bit. _ ’

He heard the boy sigh before he admitted. “I hope you get better soon, it's weird not hearing you talk. Not hearing your heart beat even though you’re lying right next to me.”

_ ‘I know, I'd like to be talking too and not having a heartbeat is eerily disconcerting. _ ’

Issac sat back up and leaned over into Stiles available sight.

“When your better, I'll help you practice some more...So things like this-” Isaac swallowed. “I don’t want this to happen again, we-i thought you’d died.” The wolf sighed as if he was silently berating himself for even bringing up the subject. 

‘ _ This won’t happen again Isaac, I promise dude. _ ’

Issac jumped when the door came open he looked guilty as Erica smirked at him. “I knew it.”

Issac scrunched up his face. “Oh come on.”

She shook her head before gesturing towards the loft. “Told them I was going to the bathroom, you little sneak. He’s gonna freak if he finds out you were in here the whole time wide awake.”

Issac snickered before saying. “Stiles made me do it.”

Erica gave him a look at the same time that Stiles thought

‘ _ You suck dude, blame the paralyzed guy, I see how it is. _ ’

Issac grinned suddenly before motioning for Erica to shut the door, she frowned but did as asked and quietly shut it.

“What?”

“Come lay down, let's see how long it takes them to figure it out.”

Erica suddenly grinned before nodding. She walked over to the opposite side of Stiles, the side Isaac normally sat on and joined them on the bed.

“Bet you Boyd comes and finds you first.”

“Well duh.”

Issac snickered at that.

“Morning Stiles.” Erica whispered.

‘ _ Morning. _ ’

“How do we know when he’s awake and when he’s asleep?”

“Don’t know.”

The two werewolves were silent a moment before Erica asked. “How was he last night?”

“Didn’t make a peep.” The mirth in the teen’s voice had Erica letting out a small growl.

“You’re hilarious.”

‘ _ Yeah I'm dying on the inside from laughter, you jerk. _ ’

Issac leaned over Stiles and grinned at Erica. “Nothing happened, no movement, no change at all.”

Erica nodded her head as she likewise peered down at Stiles.

_ ‘Stop staring you creepers. _ ’

“Maybe he’s still asleep?”

Erica glanced towards Isaac before saying. “Did you poke him?”

Issac frowned before shaking his head.“No why?”

She shrugged before saying. “He could still be asleep then, it's not like we're being loud.”

‘ _ You’re both morons, I love you but still. Morons. _ ’

The pair continued to talk in quiet voices a while until they both clammed up and identical grins spread across their faces.

‘ _ Here we go again. _ ’

They listened intently as someone walked further down the hallway before coming back down, a moment later there was a soft knock. Erica grinned at Isaac, the boy had taken his free hand and placed it over his mouth to quiet his snickering. A minute later the door came open only an inch before a frowning Boyd opened the door enough to see that Erica was indeed inside, she waved him off before saying.

“Close the door, were freaking Scott out.”

The man smirked before doing as his girlfriend asked, once the door was shut did he come to sit by Stiles' feet.

“Why?”

Was the quiet question. Issac shrugged before saying. “He came by earlier, knocking on the door and I faked him out. Then Erica came by, but she actually opened the door to check on us. We said you’d be next...Scott has to notice that  both not there right?”

Erica snorted a little before saying. “Are you kidding? He’s been pacing the kitchen for an hour.”

‘ _ Oh Scott, you lovable idiot _ .’

Issac cracked upon hearing that, Boyd shook his head at the pair before looking at Stiles.

“We think he’s asleep.”

Boyd raised a brow at that.

‘ _ And they’d be wrong _ .’

“Why?”

They shrugged before Isaac said. “Well, it's not like we can tell right? Stiles could be asleep or he could be awake, his scent’s kinda muted right now so I think he’s asleep.”

“That just means he’s not worked up about something, it doesn’t mean he’s not awake.”

Issac shrugged before saying. “It could mean he’s asleep though.”

Erica pursed her lips at the boy before her head jerked around, the others likewise looked towards the door.

_ ‘Moment of truth Scott, don’t fail me now. _ ’

They smirked when they heard someone come to stand outside the door before a knock came, none of them made a sound. Waiting to see what would happen, a few tense minutes ticked by before the door came open. 

Scott scowled at them as he entered before saying. “You all suck and I hate you.”

The Beta’s broke into fit's of laughter at the Alpha’s put out face.

“Come on it was awesome.”

Scott glared at Isaac before gesturing towards Stiles. “How is he?”

“Fine, he’s asleep.”

Scott raised a brow at that. “He is?” Scott crept closer to look at his friend, only to frown. He looked the same as yesterday.

“Isaac is assuming he’s asleep.”

The Alpha smirked at Erica.

‘ _ The big part there is assuming, I am not in fact asleep _ .’

“Ah, and you don’t agree.”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

Chuckling the Alpha muttered. “Wish there was a way for us to know for sure.”

“I know what you mean, I'd like to know if I hurt him.”

“Huh?”

Scott asked a little alarmed. Issac shook his head before saying. “Well, how can we tell if we elbow him or kick him in our sleep?”

Scott smirked before saying. “Issac, he’s fine. I highly doubt you’d hurt him, even in your sleep.”

‘ _ He does drool though _ .’

The youth nodded his head before glancing to Stiles.

“Still, I'd like to know for sure.”

‘ _ Dude, I'm fine. Well no I'm not...But that’s not your fault. _ ’

“We all would...Its nearly time to give him his morning dose and change everything, why don’t you three go get some breakfast.”

The Beta’s looked at Scott a moment before Erica questioned. “What about you?”

Scott shrugged before saying. “Someone has to stay with him, besides I can wait.”

Erica was about to open her mouth to protest when a deep voice said. “Go with them.”

They all turned to see Derek standing in the doorway, the Alpha was leaning against the door. 

“I can't, someone needs to-”

“I'll stay.”

Scott gave the Alpha a look before he reminded him, probably more harshly than necessary. “Stiles isn’t a part of your pack anymore remember”

Derek sighed at the petty jab before replying. “Its just breakfast Scott. I’ve already eaten so it's no trouble for me to sit with him until you all return.”

Scott was about to retort to the man, but Erica beat him to it. “Thanks, Derek.”

Scott glanced back to the girl with an irritated look on his face. She ignored him, instead of reinforcing what they were going to do.

“We’ll go have breakfast together and then we can come back and tend to Stiles, we won't be gone long.”

Derek nodded his head before mentioning. “There’s cereal or plenty of stuff to make something.”

Erica smiled at the Alpha before saying.

“I vote waffles.”

Catching onto what his girlfriend was doing, Boyd nodded. “Waffles it is.”

Scott glanced between the two like they were nuts, he wasn’t leaving Stiles for as long as it would take to make and eat waffles, but Isaac jumped off the bed and threw his arm over Scott’s shoulder.

“Come on waffles man, waffles.”

Scott lurched forward at the sudden weight of the boy on him and soon found himself dragged forcefully from the room. Alone Derek waited for them to disperse down the hallway before he actually entered the room. The Alpha approached Stiles cautiously like he was afraid he wasn’t welcome. Then he quietly sat on the edge of the bed staring into the boy's eyes.

“Stiles.”

‘ _ Derek _ .’

The Alpha stared at the teen a moment, internally warring with himself on what he wanted to say. If he wanted to say anything at all for that matter, he knew Scott and the others would have informed Stiles of what was going on. A part of him desperately wanted to try and defend his choice, not that he thought that the teen would care. 

Ultimately Derek broke down and in a softer less secure tone of voice stated. “I want to explain.” 

‘ _ No need, I get it. _ ’

The Alpha looked out the nearby window as he started talking. “It's not that I don’t want you here...You know that it's just that I can't let you stay. Not anymore. If you’re willing to take the bite that’s one thing, but based on our previous conversations I don’t think that’s likely.”

_ ‘I wasn’t planning on it, no. Your insane uncle kinda makes one double think things, not that I'm comparing you to Peter. Cause I'm not, I've just never been all that interested in being bitten _ .’

Looking back from the window Derek told the boy.

“We’ll make sure that you're healed up before you leave here and return home. From there on out, it's up to Scott to protect you. Don’t call me, don’t come here, I won't answer.”

_ ‘Thanks, way to make a guy feel welcome and for your information, Scott won't need to be protecting me. I’m going to fix all of this. _ ’

Taking a shuddering breath the Alpha admitted something that he wouldn’t normally state aloud, it was most likely because there was no real proof that he was being listened too. There was no one to call him out or mock him.

“I hope you're willing, I'd rather not see the pack break up like this...But I understand their need, the desire to protect their pack. The drive to keep the pack together, it's a strong instinct.”

‘ _ Wolves are meant to stick together, I know that Derek. I know you’re all meant to be together and that I'm the third wheel, the square peg that doesn’t fit in with the rest of the shapes. I’m going to fix it though okay, you won't be alone. I won't let them leave you and you won't lose a second family, I promise. _ ’

Derek looked over to the boy's saline drip before following the tube all the way to Stiles’s neck. Derek shook his head after staring a moment.

‘ _ Whats the matter now? I haven’t done anything you can be angry at me about and it's not like I wanted this _ .’

“I hope you understand.”

_ ‘I do _ .’

Stiles could tell there was something else the Alpha wanted to say, but couldn’t bring himself to utter aloud, instead, Derek shook his head as he rose from the bed to go stand by the window. Looking out across the green space.

“I wish I could have prevented all of this, I wish I had been strong enough to see Peter for what he truly was before it was too late. Before Scott got bit and you got dragged alongside him into this world. You shouldn’t have been involved in our issues to begin with.”

‘ _ Dude, again it's not your fault your uncle was a psycho. Besides, I wouldn’t have gotten to meet you or Isaac, Erica, or Boyd. We weren’t exactly in the in-crowd ya know, I mean yeah some of this is sucky. Case in point not being able to move or speak, but being your friend...It was always worth it _ .’

Stiles could barely see Derek from where he was standing, but he knew the wolf was still in the room so he didn’t panic as silence fell around him. It was only a few minutes later that Derek turned and rejoined him on the bed, no doubt something else on the man’s mind that needed to be said before they were interrupted.

the Alpha looked him straight in the eyes and said. “As soon as your well enough to return home, I don’t want to see you again. We clear Stiles?”

‘ _ You won't and yeah I get it, but that’s provided I can’t fix things Sourwolf. _ ’

“You can call me a prick or an asshole, even that stupid name you kept insisting on using when you thought I couldn’t hear you.”

‘ _ Huh so you could hear that...Interesting, well no problem there sourwolf. I won't be hanging around if I can’t fix this but I can’t promise I won’t call you any names, least of all a sourwolf because let's face it, that’s what you are. _ ’

The Alpha held his unmoving gaze a moment before looking away. Derek suddenly stood and moved to lean against the neighboring wall, just shy of Stiles vision range. A moment later Stiles had the reason why. Scott came walking back into the room and after sending Derek a look focused on him.

_ ‘I'm fine dude, what did you think he was going to attack me? Be kinda pointless don’t you think? _ ’

“He can't see you there.” Scott remarked coldly. 

Derek raised a brow before glancing towards Stiles. The Alpha turned his attention back to Scott before saying. “He knows I'm here.”

Scott glowered before saying. “How? How could he possibly know your still here? It's not like you talk to him.”

‘ _ Actually he was talking to me, granted it wasn’t the best conversation but somehow it wasn’t the worst we’ve had either. Either way, Scott you go ahead and be a dick a moment, I know your under a lot of stress. I’ll chew you out for it later _ .’

Derek snorted at the remark before saying. “Did you eat?”

Scott scowled before nodding. 

“Good, he needs another saline packet put up.”

Scott glanced over to the I.V. Stand they’d rigged up and the nearly empty back before turning around just in time to see Derek’s back disappear around the doorway. Sighing Scott glanced towards Stiles.

“Sorry man, I hope I didn’t take too long for you. I know he can be an ass.”

‘ _ You’re kinda being one too right now. _ ’

Stiles watched idly as Scott approached and disappeared out of his range of vision, Scott however never stopped talking as he moved about.

“Isaac got covered in batter in the kitchen.”

‘ _ How? _ ’

“And Boyd and Erica were being especially weird and kept giving me more waffles.”

‘ _ That’s cause your oblivious dude, they were stalling you so Derek could talk with me. _ ’

“I don’t think I'll need to eat again today.”

‘ _ Liar, you’re a wolf you eat like six meals a day _ .’

“There we go, all done.”

Stiles saw Scott move back into his range of vision and toss an empty saline bag into the trash. He turned and looked down at something.

“Oh...Uh okay. Let me find some gloves.”

‘ _ Huh why? _ ’

A moment later Scott came back into his visual field, gloves on and bent over. He heard a little fussing and Scott muttering under his breath before the teen stood up and after glancing to him said.

“Be right back dude, gotta empty this.”

Stiles watched his friend leave if he had been capable of blushing he would have been scarlet red. Scott had gone to empty his catheter. 

‘ _ I hate my life. _ ’

A few minutes later Scott returned a now empty pouch in hand and a few of fiddling he stood up.

“All done.”

Scott peeled off the gloves and threw them away just as Erica, Boyd, and Isaac came in. They looked at him strangely until he said. “Changed his saline drip and emptied his catheter.”

Erica nodded before asking. “Morphine?”

“Not yet, I was about to do that.”

She nodded before saying. “How’s his pain, has anyone actually checked?”

Scott glanced towards Stiles before shaking his head. “No, I mean I could, but mom said he needs it for a while.”

Erica rolled her eyes before coming forward towards the bed, without a second thought she tossed the blanket aside enough to grasp stile’s ankle. A moment later her arm had black veins crawling up it. It only lasted a moment before she pulled away, a grimace to her face. Knowing how their powers worked the girl said in a flat tone.

“Morphine would be good about now.”

Scott sent a concerned glance towards Stiles.

_ ‘I'm good dude, you kinda get used to it...Though I'm not about to say no to some help. Drugs or wolfy powers either would be appreciated. _ ’

Issac nudged Scott and handed him a vial of morphine and a clean syringe. The Alpha nodded his thanks before measuring out the appropriate dosage for his friend, he tapped the needle a couple of times to clear up any bubbles before expelling the extra. Scott then walked over and unscrewed the cap to one of the inputs in Stiles i.V. Line. Inserting the needle he carefully and slowly depressed the plunger, watching the clear liquid leave the syringe and enter the I.V. Going towards his friend. When he was done Scott pulled the syringe loose and capped the I.V. Line once more, he tossed the syringe away before leaning over Stiles.

“That should feel better man, sorry you had to wait.”

‘ _ It's cool, this stuff is pretty good man...Shoulder doesn’t feel quite like a piece of lava being shoved into my body anymore. _ ’

Scott gave his friend a consoling look before he turned to the others. “Alright, well you can either help or go find something to do, but I gotta clean his bandages now.”

“I'll help.”Issac piped up. 

Smirking at the boy Scott nodded his head. “Okay.”

“We’ll give you two some room to work if you need anything just call.”

Scott nodded and let the pair leave them to it. Issac was kneeling on the other side of Stiles, obviously eager to be helping. 

Chuckling Scott informed the Beta. “Remember this isn’t going to be fun Isaac, he is going to hurt some.”

The boy nodded his head before he glanced to Stiles.

“I know, but at least it's us taking care of him and not some stranger at the hospital right?”

‘ _ God you're a saint kid, my point exactly dude. _ ’

Scott smirked. “Yep, alright lets lay out some supplies and I can do one wrist and you can do the other. We’ll get him sorted out faster that way.”

Issac nodded and waited patiently for his Alpha to gather what they needed to treat Stiles.

 


	9. On the horizon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something changes with Stiles and the pack are in for a shock after Derek and Scott get some worrying news from Deaton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, you almost didn't get a chapter this week. So much chaos in the house, I literally just finished editing this weeks chapter Yay me XD. I hope you all enjoy it and if you did please leave a comment or Kudo, I love hearing from people so don't be shy. 
> 
> Side note: My mom is having surgery soon so there is the distinct chance of me missing an update or two as I'll be taking care of her. Then, as if that wasn't enough I'll be having surgery lol. So yeah, just FYI the next couple of weeks are going to be hectic, I will still do my best to update though.

Erica curled up against Boyd on the sofa, the pair were listening carefully in case they were called on to help, but as time passed they began to relax. They both knew why Derek had decided to play babysitter that morning. They had known the man long enough to realize he was trying to make things right in his own twisted little way. It was just a shame that Stiles couldn’t berate him while listening to the speech that they both had wagered started with the line ‘its for the best’. They could hear the man up in his bedroom. Occasionally shifting around, probably reading on his bed. It was stupid of him to hide upstairs in his own house, but neither Beta dared venture upstairs after the last altercation.  He was an Alpha after all and encroaching on his den wasn’t a wise thing to do. Plus if he wanted to keep them as a pack he was going to have to do more than just stomp his foot on the ground and say he was Alpha. Erica smirked to herself as she envisioned that. She was sure Stiles would have gotten a kick out of the notion.

“You’re smiling”

She tilted her head back to look at Boyd and said. “Is that a bad thing?”

The man shook his head before saying. “ Odd timing though.”

She snorted, knowing full well that Boyd had been picking up the shifts in her mood via her scent.

“What just cause I find something funny at the same time I think about Derek pouting like a two-year-old I’m suddenly a bad person?”

Boyd smirked at his girlfriend. Knowing that she didn’t have any qualms with letting Derek know how she felt as the Alpha was sure to have heard her just then. Erica winked at him before saying.

“I’m just saying, out of the two of them at least Stiles has a reason to be acting weird. He has an excuse, Derek’s just choosing to avoid us like we’re plague-ridden cause of the rift between him and Scott. Punishing us isn’t going to change that.”

Boyd shook his head as he buried his face into the girl's shoulder, barely containing his laughter. She knew how to play people, the confidence the bite had given Erica bringing her out of her shell in ways he was sure Derek did not intend. The man pulled back and gazed up when they heard movement. Derek was at the top of the stairs glowering down at Erica,  she smiled up at him.

“Oh, so you are alive up there.”

Boyd snorted before trying to offer some small token of assistance.  “He was reading.”

Derek glanced to Boyd before nodding his head. Erica sniffed at that before saying.

“And you can't read down here? Or in Stiles room with the rest of us? Just cause everything's gone to hell doesn’t mean we can't associate right? Or are we blacklisted too? Is associating with human’s going to get us shunned too?”

Derek’s frown returned with much more force than it had originally, but before the Alpha could say anything they all turned. The sudden sound of running reaching their ears. Isaac slid into the room and yelled out.

“We gotta problem!”

The Beta’s were up on their feet just as Derek came down the stairs. Isaac didn’t bother to wait, instead, he ran back towards Stiles’s room. The others fast on his heels. They all crowded into the room, Scott turning with a concerned look on his face.

“What happened?!” Erica shouted. 

Scott swallowed before looking back towards Stiles. The others glanced the boy's way but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“Scott!” Derek barked in an attempt to get the younger Alpha to explain. 

The Alpha turned his head before shaking his own and speaking in a wavering voice. “Come here.”

The group filed in closer to Stiles, Scott with a shaking hand reached out and lifted the bandage covering the boy's stomach wound. The group’s eyes focused on that spot, widening as soon as the bandage was out of the way and they could see why Isaac had come for them. The wound looked as if it had been healing for over a week. The sliced skin already knitting together around the stitches as scar tissue formed. It was still healing, but it was quite obvious that it wasn’t the same wound that they had expected to see behind the bandage.

“How?”

Scott shook his head before telling Derek. “I don’t know, he’s still paralyzed, still the same, but then we started taking off bandages and we found that.” Scott looked up to the group before saying. “That’s not all.”

He reached out and after covering the wound to make sure it wasn’t exposed too long moved to the boy's wrist. The Alpha unwrapped the loose bandage and pulled it away. Just like his stomach wound, the skin was starting to heal faster than possible. Scabs forming in the shallower parts of the wounds as he rewrapped the wound looked up to Derek.

“I think we better call Deaton.”

Derek nodded his head before glancing to Stiles a frown marring his features before he questioned. “Is he running a fever?”

Scott frowned before reaching out to place his hand on Stiles forehead,  looking back at Derek as his hand fell he shook his head. “Normal.”

Frowning when there didn’t appear to be any signs of obvious supernatural cause, Derek told the other Alpha. “I’ll call Deaton and get him here, watch him.”

Scott nodded his head, turning back around he tried in vain to sound confident and not at all freaked out like he was. “Its okay dude, this is propably some crazy reaction to whatever they pumped into you. They never told us what all they gave you.”

‘ _ Scott you’re an idiot. I love you, but you’re an idiot. This is not normal _ !’

Scott bit his lip before looking to the others. “Not a word to his dad until we figure this out.”

The Beta’s nodded their heads, assured that the Beta’s knew to keep this between all of them Scott glanced back to Stiles and shook his head.

“I don’t understand what’s going on, but we’ll figure it out.”

‘ _ I hope so Scott because I’m really scared _ .’

***********************

 

Derek paced as he talked with Deaton. The man was speculative as he rummaged through his results, he’d ignored the vast majority of the test results after finding what Derek and Scott had previously asked for. Now he was reading the full report all while making Derek wait anxiously on the phone.

“Well?”

“Patience Derek.”

“He’s healing like…” Derek paused as he realized that he didn’t actually know how Stiles was healing, it wasn’t at the rate of a werewolf that much was clear. Then again, it was quite obvious that he was no longer healing like a human, frustrated the Alpha added. “I don’t know what he’s healing like, not us that’s for sure, but not human either.”

“I am aware of the situation...Ah hold on.”

Derek growled as he paced back and forth.

“Hmm, that is strange.”

“What?”

“His blood cells, they-well they changed.”

“Changed? Changed how?”

“Almost like...Hmm, I need to come and run a few tests. I will be there shortly.”

“Deaton like what? Changed how?”

Derek glared at his phone when he heard the man hang up on him, growling he stormed back into the loft and after taking a deep breath headed down the hall. He couldn’t freak out in front of Stiles, the boy was no doubt hyperventilating in his own head after hearing what his body was doing. Derek strode in and all eyes were on him.

“Deatons on his way.”

The others nodded, none the wiser that the druid had insinuated that he knew what was wrong all while refusing to tell Derek anything.

“How is he?”

“Still no fever.” Isaac commented.

“But that’s good, right? Means this isn’t...Something else.”

Derek glanced towards the teen before nodding. “A fever is the normal precursor to the bite taking...He has no bite, so it's not surprising that he has no fever.”

‘ _ Thanks for that wonderful supernatural explanation Derek, this just means I’m a freak of nature right? _ ’

The wait for Deaton to arrive was tense, the pack shifting with each minute that passed with no answer. Scott occasionally peeled one of the bandages back to see if anything had changed. Scott got it in his head to check the stitches on Stiles’ forehead as they were the shallowest of wounds, it was almost in an afterthought to do so but the reaction had the Alpha speculating out loud. 

“Uh...If his open wounds have healed this much...What about his head?”

The others glanced at Stiles at the same time Scott did.

‘ _ Yeah stare at the freak guys...That doesn’t make me feel weird at all _ .’

Reaching over Scott gently pried the bandage off his friend's forehead only to whistle.

“Damn.” Pulling back he showed the rest of the pack Stiles’s head.

‘ _ What, what’s it look like? Damn it Scott. _ ’

Derek leaned over a frown on his face. “The stitches need to come out.”

‘ _ Uh no, no they do not. They were just put there yesterday Derek, no way they should be coming out yet _ .’

The others were just nodding to what Derek was saying which did nothing for the growing panic Stiles was feeling. Scott winced suddenly before he looked at Stiles.

“Its okay Stiles, I know this is freaky, but it’s okay whatever it is we’ll deal with it.”

‘ _ No no it is not okay, it is anything but okay Scott! _ ’

The other werewolves sensed the boy's anxiety as well as the sour smell of fear spreading in the air. It was making the Beta’s anxious and although it was causing the Alpha’s discomfort they were better at hiding it. 

Derek frowned at Stiles before saying. “Stop overthinking things, we don’t even know what this is yet. Deaton will figure it out Stiles.”

‘ _ Oh okay well when you put it like that then yeah everything is hunky dorey isn’t it? Oh, wait no it most certainly is not! _ ’

A loud knock sent Isaac scurrying to let Deaton into the loft, a few minutes later the druid was stepping into the room, a nervous Isaac trailing behind him. 

“I need you to move Scott.”

The Alpha did as asked, moving out of the way so the druid could kneel on the bed and examine Stiles. He glanced up at the stitches before making a hmming sound. Deaton then looked down to the boy's stomach, peeling off the loose bandage to examine it a moment. Nodding he turned to the pack and said.

“I’m going to remove the stitches on his forehead as it is apparent that they are no longer needed.”

The pack just stared at the man a moment before Scott jerked his hand towards Stiles.

“Uh, what about the fact that he’s healing like-”

“Like a Bastili.” Deaton replied as he pulled out the small scissors from his bag, his tone was factual in nature and didn’t depict any surprise. Nothing like the wolves around him. 

The pack froze.

‘ _ Wait what now? _ ’

“Deaton, what do you mean?”

Looking to Derek the druid calmly stated. “Stiles was injected with Bastili venom to paralyze him in such a manner that you would not be able to detect his scent or heartbeat.”

“Yeah.”

Deaton glanced to Stiles before explaining. “Those hunters were apparently too lazy to do research on their own and just assumed that the rumors of the Bastili’s venom would make the perfect tool to use against packs. They were wrong.”

The man went back to rifling through his satchel, pulling out a small pair of scissors he attended to Stiles’s forehead as he continued to talk.

“The Bastili is endangered because it offers something few other supernatural creatures can.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Bastili’s venom or toxin as the hunters assumed is actually useful in healing. It takes time to work though, most who seek its help die before the venom can do its work.”

“So the thing they poisioned him with is healing him?” Erica asked in a speculative tone.

Deaton glanced to her as he put away his scissors after removing the last stitch to Stiles’s forehead. “Correct.”

She smiled before asking. “So the paralysis is what a side effect?”

“No, the Bastili uses its venom to hunt. It is intended to disable its prey. Its only other supernatural creatures and humans who found it has another purpose. The creatures use their own venom to treat their wounds as they’re immune to the paralytic effect of course.”

Scott laughed suddenly before clamping his mouth shut. Deaton gave him a look, before continuing.

“As I was saying, Bastili venom has many uses. It is because of the amount they injected into him that it started to show this trait of itself.”

The man pointed towards the bruising marking Stiles stomach, it had already begun changing into the lighter shades, the bruising healing and an accelerated rate just like his wounds.

“ I believe that by tomorrow he won't have a bruise on him.”

“How long will it work? Should we take out the I.V.? It's flushing it out of him right? And if this stuff is healing him...” Scott asked frantically. 

Deaton shook his head before glancing towards the I.V. “The saline won't flush this venom out of him. Like most venom, it attacks the cells in the body. Bonding with them in one form or another, you would have to give him a blood transfusion to stop this.”

Scotts mouth fell open a bit. “Seriously? Like...Wow okay. So um how long till his body gets rid of the venom on its own then?”

Deaton raised a brow at that before saying. “I never said it would.”

The pack froze.

“Are you saying he’s going to continue healing faster than a normal human would?” Derek questioned the man in a stony voice. 

Deaton glanced at the Alpha before shrugging. “I do not know, based on his lab results and the blood I collected it is hard to say if his body will absorb the venom or if his cells will remain altered indefinitely.”

‘ _ Dude did I just get bit by a radioactive spider in the form of hunter douchebags with needles? _ ’

“But he could?” Scott said a small glimmer of hope in his voice.

“Perhaps, I do not know what all the venom will do to him. There has never been a reported case of it being used successfully. As I said most who sought out the Bastili’s venom as a cure, died before the venom could bond with their cells. It shouldn’t harm him though, if it was going to do that it would have done so within the first day of him being injected. By the time you brought him to me, he would have been too far gone to change things, so I figured that the venom had simply paralyzed him and left it at that. I couldn’t account for Stiles’s body actually bonding with it.”

Derek nodded his head before questioning the man. “Anything we should look out for?” Despite wanting to shield the boy by casting him out, his inner Alpha wanted to care for his packmate.

The druid thought a moment before smirking.  “A fever.”

Derek scowled at the vets humor. 

Deaton smirked before saying. “He will be fine, even if he developed a fever it would most likely just be his bodies way of destroying the leftover venom once he’s healed.”

The pack sighed in relief as Derek nodded his head.

“Thank you.” Scott said in a relieved voice.

The vet inclined his head before stating. “I’d like to take some blood to run a few more tests, nothing serious. Just idle curiosity.”

Scott snorted at that before saying. “I don’t think he’ll mind, you just told him he has superpowers.”

Deaton raised a brow at the werewolf before shaking his head. “He does not have superpowers Scott.”

Scott grinned at the vet before saying. “Trust me, I know what he’s thinking.”

‘ _ I could totally kick Batman's ass right now _ .’

Deaton sighed before getting out his drawing kit, the man easily filled two small vials of the boy's blood before he tucked them away. 

“I will leave him in your capable hands. Mind his wounds, the venom should help stave off anything, but there is no reason to leave things to chance.”

Scott and Derek nodded as the druid rose from the bed, Deaton glanced at Stiles before smirking.

“With luck, you will be getting some motion back soon. It's obvious your body is not having the typical response to the Bastili’s venom.”

‘ _ Thank god _ .’

Turning Deaton nodded to Scott and Derek before showing himself out once more. The pack sighed in relief, Scott knelt next to Stiles and crowed.

“Dude, how the hell man? You manage to get paralyzed by the same creature that’s healing you?”

_ ‘I’m awesome that way _ .’

The others snorted at Scott, but Derek shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Scott looked to Derek before telling the other Alpha.

“I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense man, he’s healing...Almost like us. Means he won't be laid up for as long too. ”

Derek was still bothered by the notion of Stiles healing as he was, but nodded his head before telling the teen. “Close enough anyways.”

Scott smirked only to glance over as Isaac climbed back onto the bed and spoke to Stiles.

“You always wanted to know what it feels like when we heal, well I’m gonna guess it's the same feeling you're experiencing right now.”

_ ‘Huh really? I would have thought it would be something cooler, this just kinda feels itchy. _ ’

Scott smirked before asking Isaac. “He asked you about that?”

Isaac nodded his head as he shrugged. “Yeah, wanted to know what it felt like when we heal, he asked about a lot of stuff actually.”

Erica rolled her eyes before interrupting Isaac. “Of course he did, its Stiles. He asks a billion questions a day.”

‘ _ No I don’t’ _

Scott and Derek smirked at the put out girl, all of them had been on the receiving end of one of Stiles’ tirades.

Isaac snorted before defending his friend. “They were good questions though.”

‘ _ Thank you Isaa _ c.’

Erica ignored the boy's statement in exchange for focusing on Stiles. “You’re paralyzed in a bed and still doing things to make us worry.”

‘ _ Yeah that sounds about right _ .’

Scott smirked at the Beta. “Its Stiles, did you expect anything less?”

Erica huffed before saying in a pointed tone towards the prone teenager. “You scare me like that again and I'll-”

‘ _ Rip my throat your with your teeth? No, wait that’s Derek. _ ’

“He’s not doing it on purpose.” Isaac piped in, interupting the girl. 

She glowered at Isaac before saying. “I don’t care, you scare me like that again and I’ll find a new and inventive way to make you suffer...Like taking you shopping with me.”

‘ _ Crap _ .’

The others snorted at the girl and her odd version of torture, Derek shook his head at Erica before telling Scott.

“I’ll check in with Deaton in a while to make sure nothing else is coming up in his blood work.” Secretly Derek knew he wouldn’t be content until he had more information about what was happening to the teen, not that he voiced such a thing.

“Thanks.” Scott said relieved, Derek nodded before heading towards the door.

“Derek?”

The Alpha paused and glanced to Isaac, the Beta shifted a bit nervously before he asked. “If...If Stiles keeps the healing thing, would that change your mind?”

The pack looked to Derek to see what the Alpha would do, the Alpha frowned a moment before glancing to Stiles.

‘ _ Derek? _ ’

“No.” And the Alpha was gone. 

The pack slumped, Isaac pressed his face into Stiles side. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

‘ _ Hey, it’s not your fault man. _ ’

“Its okay Isaac, he-he just isn’t ready to deal with this right now.” Scott attempted to console his packmate and leave a small shred of hope that Derek might actually change his mind once the Alpha had a chance to think things through.

“Or ever.” Erica muttered, she winced when Scott growled at her. 

Turning away from the Beta Scott focused himself on Stiles. “Don’t worry about him, were not going anywhere.”

_ ‘I know, that’s the problem. _ ’

**************************

 

When Melissa came to check on Stiles that night Scott filled her in, she was amazed at the boy's progress. Smirking as she declared his stomach well enough to not need covering anymore. The bruises were nearly gone from his body and the thin sheen of fresh scab and skin made it so his torso was devoid of bandages. His wrists were properly wrapped once more, Scott’s mother saying that they still needed a bit longer before it was safe to leave them off. Melissa had beamed at Stiles before kissing his now cleared forehead before she left for the night. A quick promise not to tell the sheriff until they knew more about Stiles healing was tentatively given by his mom. Scott had, of course, heard from the sheriff and filled him in on how his son was doing, minus the whole healing thing. The man was relieved to hear that his son was doing alright and told Scott not to hesitate to call him if they needed any help. Once he was done talking to Stiles dad the pack fell into a similar routine to the previous night. They lay amongst each other strewn across the bed talking. Occasionally someone would check on Stiles, but of course, the boy didn’t move or say anything. It was about that time that Erica chimed in with.

“Wow, we can actually say the cat has his tongue...The Bastili is a cat.”

The others had laughed until it hurt. Stiles had snorted to himself as even he had to admit it was a good joke. Derek stayed away, looming around the loft or his bedroom, but never drawing any closer to the hallway or the room they were in.  When it came time to draw straws, Scott pulled a dirty trick.

“I’m Alpha, so get out”

They blanched at him before Isaac snorted and rose to leave without any fight, Erica had frowned a moment before sighing and throwing her hands up.

“Fine-fine...Be that way.”

Scott had smirked and giving Boyd a look, the man had shaken his head in mirth as he followed after his girlfriend.

‘ _ That was dirty man, you’ve been spending too much time around Derek. _ ’

Scott had situated himself near his longtime friend on the bed and after a brief silence said.

“Whether or not you keep the healing bit, I’m glad it's working right now.”

‘ _ Me too. _ ’

Scott eventually fell to sleep, leaving Stiles to stare once more at the ceiling and wonder if it was possible to be sleep deprived while paralyzed. Stiles guessed he’d find out.

 

*************

 

There was a thumping that was annoying him. Shifting his head a bit, Scott tried to get comfortable, but nothing was working. Groaning he called out. “Shut off that damn noise.”

‘ _ What noise _ ?’

Scott twisted a moment more before his eyes peeled open and he glared at nothing in particular. Then he realized something, the noise he was hearing wasn’t being caused by annoying Beta’s. Scott bolted upright his face whipping about until his eyes landed on Stiles, he leaned over his friend and sputtered.

“Stiles?”

‘ _ Uh yeah _ ?’

The Alpha blinked a moment before he broke out into a wide grin. “Dude...I can hear your heart beat again.”

_ ‘Really _ ?  _ So I am in fact alive _ !’

Scott laughed as he exclaimed. “It just sped up, your excited,”

‘ _ Damn right I am. _ ’

Laughing Scott scrambled off the bed, intent on running to go get the rest of the pack to tell them then as if thinking better of it he paused in the doorway. The Alpha looked back at his friend a frown on his face.

‘ _ I’m good, go get them. _ ’

“Um...Is it okay if I go get them?”

Scott frowned a moment before shaking his head as he took a few steps into the room as if he was going to stay. Scott paused just before the bed and tilted his head.

“Are you excited I’m staying or excited I was going to get them? Damn this is hard.”

‘ _ No shit sherlock, it’s not like we have any real way to talk to each other at least not until I’m not a limpet _ .’

Scott waited for Stiles’s heart to calm from their initial excitment all while frowning back at his friend, he had no way to know if Stiles was okay with him leaving or not. The boys heart returned to a normal pattern and that was when Scott attempted to ask the boy. “Do you want to see the pack?” He sighed when there didn’t appear to be any measurable way for him to know if Stiles wanted that or not. He’d foolishly thought that he might be able to use the boys heartbeat to determine what the teen wanted, but it just wasn’t possible.

“Alright, I’m gonna get them so just hang out dude.”

‘ _ Really Scott? Hang out...What do you think I’m going to be doing while you’re away? Gymnastics, cause those require working legs. _ ’

Scott gave his friend one last lingering look before he left the room. It was only a minute later when Stiles heard the pack coming down the hall, he inwardly smirked when he caught sight of them as they came to stand at the foot of his bed.

‘ _ Hey guys, look who’s back among the living _ .’

They were smiling at him and Isaac was the first to speak. “That’s so much better.”

The other two Beta’s nodded as they agreed with the teen’s assessment, Scott grinned as he sat down next to Stile’s hip.

“I know right?” A moment later Scott told the Beta’s. “ Well at the very least we’ll know when he’s getting worked up. His heartbeat will jackrabbit like it usually does.” 

‘ _ Umm...Rude, I am not a jackrabbit and you’re insinuation is not appreciated Scott _ .’

It was when he caught sight of the look Erica was getting him that Stiles knew something was afoot, all of it Erica related affootness. 

‘Here is comes.’

Sitting at the foot of the bed she smirked at Stiles. “So you never told me, did you get the balls to ask Lydia out to that movie?”

‘You suck so much right now, I am not letting my own damn heart betray me okay.’

Erica smirked before saying. “Well that got your ticker running didn’t it.”

The others smirked as the girl baited the boy.

‘No no it did not, you heard Scott I’m easily excitable. I’ve been without my adderall for like seventy-two hours now, not my fault.’

“Did she say yes?”

‘ _ Not thinking about this...Not thinking about anything. Calm I am calm and collected and- _ ’

The pack snickered as they heard the boy's heart rate climb, Erica grinned at him before winking.

_ ‘I hate all of you so much. Seriously I love you guys, but I hate you _ .’

Shaking his head Scott told the Beta. “Alright alright, he’s suffered enough.”

‘ _ Thank you Scott. _ ’

The boy's heartbeat was fluttering around in various stages of excitement as they talked, it was nice for the pack to be able to hear him. Although they couldn’t hear his voice, the normal sounds of their pack mates heartbeat made up for that. 

“So should we tell the sheriff that he’s getting better now?” Isaac prompted the group. 

Stiles heartbeat got them all looking at him, it was racing and the boy's scent suddenly shifted dramatically towards fear. 

Scott frowned as he leaned over closer to Stiles. “Hey, what's the matter?”

‘ _ You can't tell him Scott, you can't tell him I might have super healing powers okay...He’ll flip out. He’s-he’s had a hard enough time dealing with you being a werewolf, with the pack. He can't take me being weirder than I already am. _ ’

The pack shifted closer to the boy on the bed, their instincts flaring to circle their injured pack mate and try to fix whatever was wrong. Scott was gently rubbing Stiles arm with his thumb, Isaac had crawled up onto the other side of the bed and was pressed up gently against the boy's damaged side. Erica and Boyd remained at the foot of the bed, but both had laid their hands on him. One on the ankle, the other higher on his leg near his knee. 

“Dude it’s okay, if you don’t want your dad involved then we won't tell him yet.”

The pack looked to Scott in confusion, until they registered the boy's heartbeat slowing back down.

“He’s worried about his dad?” Isaac asked. 

Scott glanced to the Beta before nodding. “Yeah...STiles worries about a lot of things, he never wanted his dad to know about all of this...It wasn’t hard for me to figure out why he was so anxious when you brought up the sheriff.”

Isaac nodded his head before murmuring against Stiles. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

‘ _ I know...It's not your fault dude. It's just this whole situation sucks _ .’

The pack slowly calmed from the small disruption. Stiles' heart had returned to a normal rhythm and the strong beat was soothing to the wolves around him who had gone too many days without proof that the boy was actually alive. They settled into a quiet conversation, normal bickering and joking with one another. Occasionally they’d hear stile’s heartbeat change and glance his way to ‘ask’ if he had an opinion as if he could reply to them. Which he always did of course, not that they knew that

. It wasn’t until Isaac’s stomach growled that the pack remembered that they’d forgotten to eat breakfast due to their excitement of hearing Stiles heartbeat for the first times since he’d been returned to them. 

Isaac had sighed before saying. “Draw straws to figure out who goes for food?”

The pack nodded and Stiles got to watch a very amusing bout of the pack creating straws before one by one picking them. Scott groaned when he got the shortest, the Beta’s smirked triumphantly at the Alpha. 

Shaking his head be couldn’t help but mutter. “You know I could just tell you all to go get food.”

“You could, but you won't and I’ll tell you why.” She smirked. “Because you know that you’d pay for it later and it’s not worth it.” Erica sing songed back to him. 

Smirking Scott shook his head as he stood and said. “I’m not sure about that but your right, I won't use my Alpha powers against you...Well not unless it's actually important. So what does everyone want?”

The chaos that ensued would have had Stiles in a fit if he was capable of it. As it was he was laughing on the inside as the Beta’s throughout an assortment of ‘orders’ for the Alpha to fill. Scott was frowning at them all by the time he’d finished his ‘list’.  “Do any of you want to come help?”

Stony silence. 

‘ _ You’re on your own dude.’ _

“Fine.” The Alpha grit out. Glancing to Stiles he nodded and spoke to the paralyzed boy.

“Be back in a bit, after I get this mountain of food.”

‘ _ Man I miss curly fries _ .’

Scott waved to the Beta’s as he ventured out into the hallway, leaving the pack to watch over Stiles. Erica waited until he had gotten far enough to not be focused on their conversation before turning around and smirking.

‘ _ Uh...Scott, maybe you should have stayed, I don’t know about this _ .’

“So...About Lydia.”

_ ‘Fuck my life _ .’

 

************************************

 

Scott paused as he was tying his shoes to glance up, Derek was leaning on the railing on the top of the stairs staring at him.

“Hey.” It was an awkward silence that followed as the other Alpha stared down at him without a single word passing his lips. “Uh I’m heading out for some food, you want something?”

Derek frowned a moment before stating. “Your leaving Stiles?”

The Alpha snorted at Derek’s disapproving tone before saying. “There’s three werewolves in that room Derek. I really don’t think he’s capable of fleeing the place or setting the kitchen on fire given his current lack of mobility. And I pity anybody who tries to break in here.”

Derek smirked at the other Alpha before nodding. Scott grinned before leaning back over to finish tying his shoes, calling out to the Alpha Scott asked. “Alright, so what do you want? I can swing through just about anywhere as Erica has decided that a sandwich is not good enough and she requires mexican. Which is conveniently not convenient”

He heard Derek snort at that just as he looked up from finishing his shoe laces. The Alpha was shrugging on his jacket, raising a brow Scott tilted his head.

“Uh Derek? You going somewhere?”

The Alpha smirked before saying. “I’m going with you.”

Scott smirked at the sudden declaration, he wasn’t about to say no to the older werewolf. He still had high hopes that the other werewolf would come around,  Scott stood and made his way towards the door.

“Well come on then, Erica has insinuated that her food better still be hot when we bring it back.”

“She can microwave it.” Came the dry retort.

Scott grinned at the Alpha as they walked towards the vehicles, only to be diverted when Derek jerked his head towards his camaro. 

“Okay, I’ll let you tackle that argument then.”

“They’re your Beta’s now, you have to handle them.”

Scott paused as he opened the door to the muscle car. He sighed as he got in, buckling in he glanced over to Derek before saying. “They’re not something to be tossed around you know. They’re people.”

“They’re wolves and they made their choice.” The Alpha’s tone was slightly rougher as he said that. 

Sighing Scott glanced out the window as they pulled out of the parking spot and headed down the driveway. “They only chose cause you made them.”

Derek didn’t reply and Scott didn’t push him too. It was a silent ride into town, food was gathered from no less than four places which seemed obsured to both Alpha’s, especially as they were driving to the fifth restaurant as they spoke about it.

“This is ridiculous, five restaurants. We should make them eat mcdonalds.”

Derek snorted before telling Scott. “Isaac wouldn’t mind that, Boyd would deal with it, but Erica would throw a fit.”

Scott grinned at the Alpha before saying. “Hey you’re the one who gave her that confidence and now its coming to bite us in the ass.”

Derek snorted before saying as Scott tried to lay the blame on him for how Erica acted. “She always had the confidence, she just needed someone to show her she had it.”

Scott hmm’d at that as they pulled into the parking lot of the mexican joint, the pair had just stepped out of the camaro when Derek’s phone went off. The Alpha frowned before pulling it out, he called out to Scott to wait and told the teen.

“Its Deaton,”

Scott ran up to him just as he answered the phone.

“Deaton?”

“Ah good I was hoping you’d answer.”

Ignoring the pleasantries the vet was giving him, Derek asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Hmm oh, well I suppose it depends on your idea of wrong.”

Gritting his teeth at the druid’s vague reply Derek asked. “Why are you calling me?”

“I finished my examination of Stiles blood.”

The werewolf perked up and gave Scott a glance, the teen didn’t miss the significance of it and crowded closer. Derek shoved him back before saying into the phone in an irritated manner which was directed towards Scott. “Hold on, let me put you on speaker.”

He gave Scott a glower as he did so, the teen glared right back before speaking to the vet.

“Hey is everything okay?”

“Oh yes, everything's fine here”

Growling Derek barked out. “Stiles, Deaton, what did you find?”

The druid was silent a moment before the werewolves heard him mutter something about rudeness. Scott smirked as Derek glared down at his phone, a moment later the druid was speaking.

“The reason I called was because I finished my examination of Stiles blood and the Bastili venom.”

“Yeah and?” The Alpha prompted in annoyance.

“I was both right and wrong.”

Scott frowned before giving Derek a perplexed look, the Alpha sighed before asking Deaton.

“English Deaton, what did you find?”

“His blood changed to adapt the venom to heal himself.”

“Yeah okay, we knew that.”

“Yes, what we didn’t know was if he would keep the ability to accelerate his own natural healing abilities.”

Derek nodded as Scott spoke. “Yeah, so is he?” He wouldn’t be the only on who would be glad if the teen kept that particular ability. Especially because Stiles was always in the thick of things whether they wanted him to be or not.

“Keeping the healing?”

“Yeah, will he heal up faster from now on?”

“Oh yes, I have no doubt that he’s going to be doing that and much more in the near future.”

Scott frowned at the phone in Derek’s hand, unsure what he was hearing. Derek took over easily enough while the younger man looked on in confusion.

“Deaton what do you mean he’ll be doing much more?”

“Well his blood cells adapted the venom to heal himself.”

“Yeah and?”

The druid was moving something around which sounded like sheets of paper to the pair of werewolves. “When his blood began adapting the venom to use its potential to heal himself, something unexpected happened. I really should have seen it coming after talking to you all about it.”

“Deaton!” Derek barked, he didn’t wish to sort through the man’s ramblings.

The man sighed before saying. “A while ago I told Stiles about sparks. He wanted to know about how werewolves work, how you heal, how you can take pain from others. Things of that nature. He was curious about other creatures as well and I told him what I knew, that all things have a spark and that it was simply the ability to access said spark that changed people.”

“Okay and what's that got to do with Stiles?” Scott questioned.

“Most who have access to their spark are people who are of supernatural origin, like Derek being born a werewolf or they could be bitten, like you Scott. Both of these paths opened your sparks. Made you capable of more than just everyday feats. In rare cases a human can access their spark, this is most commonly seen in druid’s like myself. Stiles’s case is rather different.”

“Again Deaton get to the point!” Derek yelled into the phone. 

The man sighed before saying. “I am. When I told Stiles all about sparks he asked if his was...Awake for a lack of a better term. When he told me about his ability to use the mountain ash as he had I believed he had tapped into his spark if only a little. I thought nothing more about it, that is until today.”

Scott shook his head before saying.

“that’s...It doesn’t make sense though I mean he’s never done anything else right? I would have seen something right?”

“You most likely weren’t around when his spark was active. Most adolecents sparks only expell magical energy in times of extreme incidents, powerful emotions drive the spark to flare out and do something to help its creator.”

Scott looked pale as he looked up to Derek, not liking how this conversation was going.

“And the Bastili venom?” Derek questioned.

“When it entered his body it paralyzed him, just as the hunters intended. However they were unaware of his spark, of what all of this could mean. Their usage of electrocution against him left residual energy in Stiles body. It would have faded with time, but they gave him the venom. The venom must have used the energy from the electricity in Stiles own body to force his spark into accepting it. His body recognized the Bastili venom as something supernatural, something that could help it and began adapting to it.”

The wolves were silent a moment before Scott questioned the vet. “So, the hunters accidentally did something to his spark?”

“In essence yes.”

“So he can do magic now?”

“No Scott.” Came the put out reply from the druid. 

Scott glanced to Derek with a ‘help me out here’ look. Sighing Derek asked the vet. “What's this all mean Deaton?”

“It means that Stiles’ spark started using the venoms healing abilities to fix the damage to his body. The venom isn’t going to be cast out now, his body knows its helpful and thus his spark is assimilating it.”

“ What like the borg?” Stony silence met Scotts insane theory, Derek was giving him a dark look as well. “Sorry, uh Stiles is a little bit..Ya know what nevermind...Okay so he’s assimilating the venom. What's that mean for Stiles?”

Derek shook his head at the teen as he listened to what Deaton had to say.

“His spark was taking all the useful components from the Bastili venom to use for Stiles protection. Once his spark realized that the venom was more than just a tool it started assimilating it to keep it.”

“Okay, that sounds kinda cool.”

The vet sighed before stating. “Scott, what I’m trying to tell you two is that Stiles spark is using the venom like a bite.”

The werewolves froze, their eyes latching onto one another.

“Hello? Derek? Scott?”

Shaking himself out of his frozen state Derek barked out at the man. “He hasn’t had a fever!” Derek was grasping at straws at that point, unsure if what Deaton was actually saying could be true. “If he was using it like a bite, he’d have a fever.” At least that is what the Alpha assumed.

“Yet.” Came the stony reply. “There is a good chance that he will develop a fever, but I can’t say for certain if it will happen given his cells are already bonded with the venom.”

Swallowing thickly Derek asked. “What do we do? Is he going to accept this venom then? The bite?”

“I can only extrapolate my opinion based on the tests, but so far I would say there is a very low chance of him rejecting this pseudo bite.”

“So he’s a Bastili?”

Derek glanced to Scott, the boy had a pained look on his face. No doubt he was feeling conflicted about all that they had heard. 

Deaton didn’t pull any punches as he replied. “Yes, or I should say he will be soon.”

As soon as he heard the answer one thing came to mind for Derek. Neither him nor Scott had issued the bite, they had no bond with the Bastili shifter Stiles would become. Having an untrained creature running about could be disastrous.

“What can we expect, will he respond to me and Scott as Alphas?”

There was a brief silence as if Deaton was thinking about the question. “I’m not sure about that, as I said their endangered...There hasn’t been much study on their behaviors and what is published is rather...Lacking in detail.”

Shaking his head Scott began to pace back and forth as he rambled. “So Stiles is turning into some kind of supernatural cat and we have no clue if he’s going to accept me or Derek as Alpha or if he’ll go berserk on us. Let alone whatever else might come up with this transformation.”

“Scott.” The Alpha glanced towards Derek, the Alpha shook his head. “He’s still Stiles, we can ground him.”

“No no Derek, he’s turning into a creature that we have zero...Zero!  Experience with. He is going to freak. Its Stiles, Derek, he is going to freak the hell out and then what are we going to do? Chain him up in the basement?”

Derek sighed before turning his attention back towards Deaton when it became apparent that the other Alpha wasn’t going to calm down. “Do you have anything on Bastili’s Deaton?”

“A few small notes, I can put together what I have though I would suggest you contact Chris, his hunter connections might have more.”

Nodding his head Derek then asked. “Alright, we’ll contact him and swing by to pick up your notes. Is there anything else we should know about what's going on with him?”

There was a short pause before Deaton replied. “I suppose the most I can offer you is the advice that you explain this to him in terms he will understand. He and I had lengthy conversations about sparks and he knows about the bite. Find a way to assure him that nothing he did caused this, his body was simply trying to save itself and reacted accordingly.”

“Alright, we’ll be there in a few.”

“Very well.”

The line went dead and after shoving the phone into his pocket, Derek looked to Scott. The boy was still pacing back and forth in  a tight line. Biting his lip as his hands clenched and unclenched.

“Scott.”

The Alpha shook his head and kept walking, sighing Derek walked into the middle of the boy's pattern to prevent him from pacing and force him to look up at him. It worked. The Alpha turned to resume his pacing only to stop and look up, a glare on his face.

“Scott think about this a moment. There’s nothing we can do about this, its set. We need to get as much information as we can about this Bastili and find a way to tell Stiles.”

The Alpha shook his head. “He’s...He’s not ready for this-He didn’t even want the bite when it was from us Derek.”

The Alpha nodded his head. “I know, but there’s nothing we can do about what those hunters did. All we can do now is prepare, we won't be of much use to Stiles if we don’t know what to expect. If he’s getting all of the Bastili’s abilities, he’s going to have venom of his own. If Stiles loses himself when he shifts the first time then he can paralyze us.”

Scott froze. “Shit.” He hadn’t even registered the fact that the Bastili had venom and that Stiles would most likely have that particular ability as well. 

Nodding his head Derek told the boy. “We need to be prepared, for his and our sakes. Let's go get Deaton’s notes.”

Scott nodded his head jerkily and ran back to the passenger side of the camaro. The pair were speeding down the road, halfway to Deatons when Scott snorted suddenly. The first sound he’d made since they’d headed towards the vet clinic, Derek glanced his way before focusing on the road.

“What?”

“We forgot Erica’s mexican food.”

Derek smirked as he pressed the gas a little harder, revving the engine and getting them closer to Deatons. “There’s a mcdonalds on the way.”

Derek smirked when he heard Scott laugh at his jibe. At least he’d managed to calm the boy some,  despite his earlier joking Derek internally worried about their ability to cope with what lay before them. They needed to learn all they could about what a Bastili was, about what Stiles was becoming. 


	10. So much to learn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Derek learn more about the Bastili and the pack tries to figure out how to broach the subject with Stiles. Stiles begins to regain some movement, though not nearly enough as far as he is concerned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, folks, so mild update here. I'm sure I mentioned it before, but my mom is having surgery tomorrow. I'm not sure if you'll get a chapter the following Sunday since I'm her caretaker and things are just going to be chaotic here. So here's this weeks chapter and hopefully, I'll get around to doing some editing after her surgery, but just in case...Sorry for possibly missing an update XD.

When they arrived at Deaton's clinic, the pair of Alpha’s came in through the back. It was still during business hours and they didn’t much care for some crazy cat lady taking notice of them. Deaton glanced up from his desk and nodded to them as he rose and collected a small folder, he handed it to Derek before saying.

“It's not much, but its all I have.”

“What do we do if he paralyzes us?”

Deaton gave Scott a strange look before looking towards Derek secretly asking where such a question had come from.

The Alpha sighed before stating. “When he shifts for the first time, he might lose control. I brought up the issue of us not being able to control Stiles and him possibly paralyzing us and getting loose.”

Deaton made an ‘ah’ face before he turned and began rummaging through some of his ‘off limits’ drawers. The pair waited as patiently as they could. Finally, the man turned around and held up a jar with some blue dust.

“What is that?”

“Its the equivalent of what one would call catnip.”

Scott's frown suddenly disappeared as he leaned in to stare at the blue dust before laughing.

“Are you shitting me? You want us to drug him with catnip?”

Deaton shook his head before clarifying. “If you spread some of this about it will keep him distracted. Think of it as a last resort. If he becomes violent for whatever reason, this should docile him long enough for you to figure out another way to control him. I would advise mountain ash as a barrier, but seeing as your pack is about to be all supernatural that would be ill-advised.”

Scott nodded his head before taking the jar. He unscrewed it and gave it a sniff before shrugging his shoulders and recapping it. Deaton gave him a look before he turned to Derek and handed the other object he had retrieved. The Alpha accepted the charm, holding it up to stare at the pressed metal that seemed to have a foreign symbol engraved in it.

“What does it do?”

“If you attach it to a collar and put it around his neck, it should help ground him. Keep him aware of himself. It is by no means full proof, but it is a start.”

Scott snorted before pointing towards the charm in Derek’s hand. “You want us to put a collar on Stiles? He’s going to have something to say about us treating him like a cat.” The amusement in the teen’s voice had the vet shaking his head in exasperation.

Derek likewise had a putout look at the teen’s statement.

“You won't be needing to worry about putting the collar on Stiles while he’s human Scott, its meant for when he shifts into his Bastili form.”

Scott’s amusement blanched at the same moment that Derek turned a steely look towards the vet just as the teen beside him asked.

“Uh...Wait a minute. Shift or not he’s still gonna be human...Right?”

The vet shook his head at the boy before clarifying for the Alphas. “Bastili are not your average supernatural Scott. Stiles’s shift will be different than your own, where you retain a bipedal form, Stiles will not.”

Derek glared at the druid before exclaiming. “He’s going to turn into an actual cat?!”

Deaton ignored the Alpha’s growl, instead choosing to take the file back from the Alpha and flip through it. Once he found what he was looking for, he showed it to the pair.

“That is what Stiles is going to become.”

The two werewolves stared at the black and white ink drawing. Deaton waited for them to get a good look before snapping the folder shut and pushing it into the Alpha’s hands once more.

“Stiles is not a house cat, do not treat him as such.” The vet told them in a rebuking tone, going onto explain. “Those quills he will have house the paralyzing venom that you’ve already seen the effects of in Stiles himself. The Bastili’s teeth can cause great amounts of damage just like its claws, Stiles is a predator, no different than a wolf.”

Scott shook his head before yelling. “That is very different, did you see that? That is so far from wolf it's not funny.”

Deaton gave the boy an annoyed look before saying. “Be that as it may, you can't avoid this. There is no taking back the venom in his body.”

Scott slumped against a nearby cabinet before muttering. “My best friend is turning into a supernatural cat.”

Derek snorted before reminding the boy. “And his turned into a wolf. Deal with it.”

Scott's head jerked up at the older Alpha’s irritated retort, he glanced to Derek and exclaimed. “I don’t turn into an actual wolf!”

Derek shrugged before turning to Deaton, it was clear that Scott wasn’t ready to discuss anything civilly. As much as he loathed to do so, Derek thanked the druid, for once the man had been helpful.

“Thank you for your help.”

The man nodded his head before making his way back to his desk as if they had never disturbed his work. Derek yanked Scott by his shirt and pulled him along, once they were outside near the Camaro did the Alpha tell the boy.

“If you freak out on him, Stiles will freak. Get your shit together Scott, we don’t know how soon his senses are going to change. What senses he’s going to be able to use against us.”

“You mean if he’ll be able to tell if we lie.” Scott stated softly. “Or when he might get it.” Scott winced when he remembered how he’d begun to develop some of his wolf attributes days before the full moon. There was no telling when Stiles might develop something from the Bastili.

Derek nodded. “We’ll tell him how it is, we show him this and we get him through it.” He waved the folder Deaton had given him at the younger werewolf. “Come on, we need to head back to the loft. Here call Chris and fill him in.”

Derek handed his phone over to the teen as he climbed into the car, he glanced down to this cupholder when Scott placed the jar of ‘catnip’ in it. The Alpha snorted at the sight of it before starting up the Camaro.

“Uh, Chris...Yeah its Scott, we need your help again.”

 

*******************************

 

Stiles had enjoyed listening to the Beta’s talk back and forth, but after an hour of it, he was beginning to wonder what was taking Scott so long. I mean how long does it take to run out for food? The Beta’s didn’t seem worried about it though, they hadn’t once mentioned the Alpha’s lengthy food run. At the moment they were in the process of talking about the last lacrosse game. Stiles was amused by Isaac claiming that the other team had obviously been cheating as no human was that good.

‘ _ Dude, not everybody is a supernatural creature ya know, some of us are just human _ .’

Boyd had shaken his head at the teen before commenting. “He has a good record.”

“I’m telling you, totally a werewolf”

Erica rolled her eyes before reminding the boy. “If he’d been a werewolf you would have smelt it.”

Issac paused a moment before shrugging. “Okay fine, he’s not a werewolf...There’s plenty of other things out there.”

Erica smirked at the boy's refusal to give in that he was bested by a human. Boyd was smirking as well, though he glanced from time to time to make sure Stiles was alright.

‘ _ Still just sitting here dude _ .’

Stiles knew the larger teen was just making sure his pack was safe, but it was so boring to have to sit there. Listening and never contributing, as he was thinking that he let out a sigh. All the Beta’s turned and looked at him at the same time Stiles realized that he’d actually controlled his own breathing. Not the in and out reflex breathing he’d been forced to take since he’d been paralyzed. Stiles had actually intelligently sucked in more air to sigh at them.

“Stiles?”

Issac asked as he leaned closer, the Beta’s took notice of the boys increased heart rate.

“So you noticed that too?” Erica questioned all while never taking her eyes off of Stiles in case the human did something else.

_ ‘Hell yeah, I did! _ ’

“Yeah.” Isaac replied softly.

It was when Isaac shifted just out of his range of sight that Stiles really freaked because he didn’t lose sight of the boy, his eyes followed him. 

Erica screeched before she pointed at Stiles. “His eyes”

The Beta’s glanced to Stiles and the human blinked, actually blinked and god did it feel good. His eyes flitted around the room, taking in all three of them before closing a moment and opening again. Stiles could control his eyes again.

“Oh my god, you can move them again. That’s awesome!” Issac cheered. 

Boyd nodded to the human as his girlfriend crept closer to Stiles and cupped his cheek, the teen glanced down to her hand before up to her eyes.

“Oh look at you, Scott is going to be pissed he missed this.”

‘ _ yeah I bet he is...Also, you’re kinda making this seem like I’m some kind of toddler taking his first steps, not gonna lie that’s a bit degrading there Erica. Then again I don’t think that would necessarily stop you. _ ’

Without looking away from Stiles Erica told Boyd.

“Go get Derek.”

The boy frowned before asking. “Are you sure?”

“Screw his self-isolation, go get him.”

Sighing the Beta slowly left the room to go find the other Alpha.

‘ _ You love to cause trouble don’t you Erica? _ ’

The girl was oblivious to what Stiles was thinking, instead, she leaned forward and gently hugged him. Her lips cradling his ear. “I’m so glad you're okay.”

‘ _ Thanks...I’m kinda glad too ya know and being able to move is pretty great, even if its just my eyeballs is kinda nice. A good change of pace from the last two days of hell. _ ’

The wolf pulled back and smiled at him just as Boyd walked back into the room with a frown.

“What? Did he refuse to come see?” The irritation lining the woman’s voice was superseded by Boyd’s reaction.

Boyd shook his head before saying. “He’s not here.”

The Beta’s frowned before Isaac asked. “Do you think he went with Scott?”

Boyd shrugged before leaving again, more than likely to check if the man’s Camaro was still out front or not. Erica smirked at her boyfriend’s actions before saying in a huffy tone.

“Well, if his Camaro's gone we’ll know for sure if he took off for a while in some attempt to avoid us.”

A couple minutes later Boyd walked back in and shook his head. “Camaro’s gone, Scott's car is still here though.”

Erica blinked a few times before she smiled. “Mmhmm, the two of them   went into town together.” She looked to Stiles before saying in a chipper tone. “Looks like Mr. Sourwolf can't push us all away.”

‘ _ Hehehe you called him Sourwolf _ .’

The other Beta’s snorted at the girl before Isaac commented. “Derek won't like you calling him that, he hates it when Stiles does it.”

Erica shrugged before saying. “Too bad, its what he is.”

‘ _ Thank you, at least someone gets it _ .’

Issac rolled his eyes before telling Stiles. “At least now we’ll be able to tell when your sleeping or not, the whole zombie look was kinda weirding me out man.”

‘ _ Thanks, I feel so understood right now...It's not like I was choosing to keep my eyes open ya know.’ _

Boyd chuckled at Isaac’s statement before saying. “Knowing him, he will stay awake to make you uncomfortable.”

‘ _ Damn right I will...Well not tonight, I am so looking forward to some downtime... Actually...Screw it, I’m taking a nap.’ _

Stiles glanced at all of them one last time before shutting his eyes. It was barely a minute later before someone was touching his arm, his eyes snapped open and he inwardly barked out.

‘ _ Seriously? Guys I’m trying to sleep here.’ _

“Are you okay?” Erica questioned a tinge of concern in her voice.

‘ _ I’m fine, just very very sleepy. Now Stiles is going to go night night now okay, good, glad we had this little chat _ .’

Stiles shut his eyes once more after staring at her a moment, Erica frowned and was about to shake Stiles arm again, when Isaac whispered. “Maybe he’s tired.”

Erica frowned before saying in a normal tone of voice. “Why are you whispering? And why would he be tired?”

Issac glanced towards Stiles before questioning. “We...How do we know he was sleeping at all? I mean his eyes were open right? Can you sleep with your eyes open?”

Erica was about to give a snotty retort but stopped herself as she realized what the boy was saying had merit. Frowning she glanced to Stiles and in a lower tone said. “He’s been awake for  three days then.”

Issac nodded. “Yeah, let him sleep.”

Erica pursed her lips before sighing and nodding, the group got comfortable on the bed next to Stiles and let the boy get some sleep. They were hoping that all he was doing was catching up on some lost sleep and not falling into a coma or anything else that would cause them more turmoil. Stiles was quite happy to fall asleep surrounded by the pack of Beta’s.

‘ _ You guys are the best _ .’

 

************************

 

Scott shut off the phone and glanced towards Derek as the Alpha drove them towards the loft. 

“Well?” Derek’s voice was clipped, he hadn’t been able to hear what Chris was saying and Scott hadn’t been much help in relaying the hunter’s words while they were talking. Effectively leaving Derek out of the loop. 

“He’s coming over or as he said ‘to make sure nothing bad happens’... He promised to bring some stuff about Bastili, but he sounded...Wrong.”

“Lying wrong or worried wrong?” Derek questioned the teen in a cautious tone.

“Uh, the second one.”

Nodding his head Derek said. “Worried is fine if he was lying about something we’d have a problem.”

“Nope, no lie detected...Just Chris being Chris... In the ‘ in the I’m older and know better way’.”

Derek smirked at the teen riding shotgun, they were only a few miles out from the loft when Scott's phone rang. The teen struggled to get it out of his pocket as he sat in the Camaro, but finally wrenched it free and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, so uh...We may have discovered something or we think we did anyway.”

“Isaac? What do you mean?”

Derek glanced at the Alpha before stepping on the gas harder, Scott braced himself before glaring at Derek as he listened to Isaac answer him.

“Stiles can move his eyes now”

“That’s awesome!”

Derek glanced Scott’s way a deep frown on his face, Scott smiled before saying. “Stiles can move his eyes.”

Nodding Derek let his food release off the gas some now that it was apparent that there wasn’t something bad happening back at his loft.

“Yeah and uh we think, well I thought...He hasn’t been sleeping.”

Frowning Scott shook his head before asking. “What do you mean? Of course, he has.”

“Umm...Well that’s the thing, we don’t know for sure right? His eyes have been open 24/7 since we found him and I didn’t figure he could sleep like that. I mean I wouldn’t be able too, not with my eyes open.”

Scott blinked before his brain caught up, of course, Stiles hadn’t been asleep. They’d all just assumed that he could find a way to, but that was them being idiots. Stiles had to have been awake the entire time since his eyes were open.

“Yeah, you got a point there.”

“What?”

Scott shook his head at Derek before returning to the conversation with Isaac, ignoring the growl he got in return for ignoring the man’s question. “So what’s happening now?”

“Not much, he’s sleeping. Actually sleeping. His heart slowed down in that...Lull pattern ya know and his eyes are closed...He seems pretty happy actually.”

Smirking Scott muttered back at the Beta. “Well yeah, I bet he is...Were only a couple minutes out, keep your voices down and let him sleep alright?”

“Sure thing. See ya.”

Shutting off his phone Scott glanced to a scowling Derek and said. “So Stiles got the movement in his eyes back.”

“I know.” The Alpha grit out, not so subtly reminding the other Alpha that he’d already learned that particular piece of information.

Scott ignored the biting tone the man used, far too used to Derek’s shifting emotions by now to actually react to something like a growl. “Isaac said he’s sleeping right now so we need to keep it down when we get there. He came up with the idea that Stiles hasn’t been sleeping since his eyes were open this whole time and there’s really no way for us to know if he slept or not beside asking him.”

Derek frowned before saying. “That’s a long time to go without sleep.”

Scott snorted before saying. “He went two days without sleep when he was ‘fixing me’ after I got bit, researching everything about werewolves and bingeing energy drinks and Adderall. He’s probably tired, but he’s catching up on the missed sleep now so he’ll be okay.”

Derek nodded his head as he drove around the last curve before they entered the loft’s territory.  The silence was soon eaten up by a more insecure tone from Scott.

“How are we going to tell him?”

Derek was silent a moment before he answered the conflicted youth beside him. “How’d Stiles tell you about being a werewolf?”

Scott laughed before saying. “Yeah, let's not do it that way.”

Derek smirked, he could only imagine how Stiles had bestowed that particular information to his friend. “Its Stiles, Scott, were just going to explain everything Deaton told us. His spark used the Bastili venom because of the hunters meddling and he as good as has the bite from the creature itself.”

Scott rolled his eyes before saying. “Stiles can't talk Derek, do you know how many questions he’s going to have? His brain will explode. Like literally explode.”

Chuckling at the teen’s dramatics Derek shook his head. “All we can do is our best Scott.” Then as if thinking better of it, the Alpha replied with mirth. “Maybe start with the superpower’s.”

Derek was proud of himself when he got a boisterous laugh from the younger man if there was one thing he was getting better at it was being an Alpha. Taking care of his pack wasn’t nearly as hard as it had been when he’d first inherited the Alpha powers of his family. A movement had Derek glancing over to Scott only to find that the Alpha smiled before rummaging through the file on his lap. Derek returned his focus to the road and let the Alpha read, a moment later the Alpha made a noise before saying.

“Huh...Okay, so if he goes all feral on us...The loft is going to suck.”

“Why?”

“They can climb.”

“Trees.” Derek stated with a dry tone.

“Uh yeah no...They can do that, but I meant in general. Like cats, they can climb up damn near anything. His claws are gonna be thick and your walls and furniture are going to end up his personal scratching post.” Scott smirked towards the now irritated Alpha.

Derek glared at Scott a moment before looking forward again. “Lovely.”

Smirking Scott returned to the folder and began telling Derek what he was reading. “They ambush so yeah...The whole him climbing above us thing...Not so good.”

“He can jump down and paralyze us before we can move.” Derek surmised.

“Sounds about right.”

Sighing Derek shook his head as he turned into the driveway that led them to the loft. “Anything else?”

“Hmm. Let's see...Uh normal stuff, scent marking...Growling...Territorial...Yeah, he should fit in just fine with the pack.”

Derek snorted before asking. “And does it say if he’ll react to us?”

“No, not that I can see.”

Nodding Derek slowed as they pulled into his normal parking space outside the loft, pulling the Camaro right around the front of the loft space in his usual place. Once in park Derek turned to Scott. “Then we’ll just hope Chris has more information.”

Scott nodded before looking towards the door of the loft, he sighed and admitted. “I thought things were getting better.”

Derek was silent a moment as he took in the tone and general mood of the younger Alpha, it was clear that Scott was feeling the strain of everything that had happened. Learning that Stiles was now going to be something supernatural against his own will had to be pushing the youth towards a metaphorical cliff. 

“Things could be worse Scott.” The Alpha glanced to Derek, the Alpha gave him a look before saying. “He could have rejected it.”

Scott froze a moment as his mind processed that, it hadn’t crossed his mind but now that Derek brought it up it was true. Just because Stiles’ body had used the Bastili venom as a bite didn’t automatically mean that Stiles would accept it, he finally gave a jerky nod.

“Yeah...Yeah, your right.”

Giving a nod, Derek grabbed the blue dust and the charm before he climbed out of the car and headed towards the loft. Scott gathered up the file and what food they had gotten before they were sidetracked, the majority of it was probably past edible what with their trip to Deaton but that could be worked out later, they had bigger problems. Scott took a deep breath and followed after Derek, the pair entered the loft.

 

**********************

 

“Finally.”

Erica whispered, they were all being mindful to keep their voices down so as not to wake up Stiles, Isaac and Boyd smirked at the irritated girl. They could hear the two Alphas coming down the hallway, the smell of stale food accompanying them. Erica gave an annoyed huff when the scent reached them.

“How can you screw up getting food?” She hissed under her breath.

The other Beta’s never got a chance to answer her as the Alpha’s came into the room prompting the Beta’s to sit up when they saw the strange emotion written over both the men's faces. Something was wrong. Scott put the food aside before putting a finger to his mouth, the Beta’s nodded and waited anxiously to be filled in. Derek approached the bed, behind Isaac and leaned over the teen to get a better look at Stiles. Seeing nothing unusual he pulled back and nodded, Derek sat on the corner of the bed and told the anxious Beta’s.

“Deaton called.”

They nodded their heads before sending a nervous glance to both Scott who was leaning against the nearby wall and to the sleeping form of Stiles.

“And?” Boyd questioned quietly. 

“His tests showed something he wasn’t prepared for...Deaton didn’t think was possible. Stiles isn’t just getting the Bastili's healing from some freak accident.” Scott sighed before telling them. “He’s becoming a Bastili.”

The Beta’s froze as they registered what the Alpha had just told them, the silence was soon overcome by the shocked exclamation of Erica.

“What!” She slammed a hand over her own mouth upon realizing just how loud she’d been.

all eyes went to Stiles, the boy remained as he was, eyes closed. No sign he was disturbed by the girl's outcry. 

Derek glowered at Erica before saying. “Its a long story, but the short version is Stiles’s spark latched onto the Bastili venom and turned it into a makeshift bite.”

“No way.” Issac whispered in awe.

Derek nodded his head at the Beta before saying. “Deaton doesn’t know how long it’ll take for Stiles’s ‘bite’ to take hold, but he said the chances of him rejecting it now are so small it's not worth mentioning. Stiles’ as good as a Bastili. We stopped by Deatons and he gave us some stuff to help with Stiles first shift, Chris is on his way to help us out as well.”

The group nodded their heads before Scott spoke for the first time. “Look, he’s going to freak okay, total and utter panic. No matter how ‘cool’ he thinks we are, he never wanted the bite, even I know that. So this isn’t going to go over well with him.”

“What do we do?” Erica asked in a subdued tone. 

Scott grit his teeth a moment, struggling to find some answer that might help the situation. Ultimately, he came up with nothing, there was nothing that they could do to make this better all they could do was cope.

“We tell him the truth and try and ground him when the time comes...We don’t know if he’ll react or accept me or Derek as an Alphas. So there’s a chance he could go feral, that's why Deaton gave us some stuff.” The Alpha held up a small charm before explaining. “Its supposed to help ground him.”

“Like an anchor?” Boyd stated inquisitively

Scott nodded his head. “Exactly, just to help focus his mind so we can calm him down, if that doesn’t work though we have this.”He held up a jar with blue dust in it.

“What's that?” Issac asked curiously as he peered into the glass container which showed a glimmering substance. 

Scott couldn’t help but smirk as he said with a somewhat straight face. “Catnip.”

The Beta’s stared at him a moment before Erica snorted. “Bullshit.”

Scott shook his head before saying. “I’m not lying. Deaton said its not like normal catnip cause he’s not gonna be a normal cat...It's just something to distract him with. Said if we put it around it’ll keep him busy long enough for us to wrangle him.”

Erica still looked skeptical but nodded. “Fine, but I’m taking embarrassing pictures if he does act like a cat on catnip”

Scott snorted before stating. “If your not paralyzed be my guest.”

She blanched at that, but Derek sighed and took over making sure the Beta’s fully understood the depth of their situation. “Stiles’ going to have all of its abilities Erica, including the ability to render its prey paralyzed.”

“Oh, that’s not good.” Issac muttered. 

Scott snorted before looking away when Derek glared at him. “It's not, but its what it is. With any luck, he won't go feral and we can just get used to all of this.”

“He does not seem the type to lose control.” Boyd replied casually all while staring back at Stiles.

“Exactly, when it counts Stiles can focus, that will be what counts when he has his first shift. He’ll understand how dangerous this could be and he won't want to lose control, not if it will endanger us. The best thing we can do is get him as prepared as possible for it.”

“Does the moon affect his shifts?” Erica questioned. 

Scott shrugged his shoulders as he held up a folder. “There’s really not much here.”

She nodded her head in acceptance of their limited knowledge on the subject, the entire pack flinched when they heard the front door slam followed by the sound of footsteps heading their way. Scott bolted into the hallway to intercept the intruder, only to walk back in with a grumble.

“Its just Chris.”

They all sighed and a moment later the hunter strode in, he glanced at them all before looking at Stiles. He was cut off from saying anything when Isaac whispered. “He’s sleeping.”

The hunter nodded before saying in a lower tone. “Come on. We need to talk.”

The hunter walked back out of the room and headed towards the living space, the pack glanced about one another before Boyd suggested. “Go, I’ll stay with him.”

The others nodded and filed out, Erica giving the man a kiss on her way. Boyd smiled before turning focused eyes onto his sleeping pack mate.

 

************

 

The pack filed into the lofts center, Chris motioned for them to sit as he rifled through a backpack he’d brought with him. The pack begrudgingly sat at the hunter's command and waited, they watched as he pulled out an old book with a faded hide cover and held it up.

“Who?” Scott stood up and rushed over, the man smirked before handing it to the eager teen. “Careful, it's old.” Scott nodded as he retook his seat and opened it. “Scott.” The teen looked up to Chris, the hunter shook his head before saying. “Shut the book, I’m going to fill you in, that’s just got the backup stuff okay.”

Scott shut the cover slowly as if he wasn’t quite sure he was prepared for what the hunter had to say, still, he did as asked.

Giving a nod to Scott, Chris took a breath and addressed the pack.“Good. Okay, so Scott filled me in on what happened. The book he has is the best resource for knowledge on a Bastili I have. There's only ever been a few documented hunts of one because they really aren’t a threat to humans given how they live. Frankly, we're still trying to figure out how those idiots got a hold of one’s venom in the first place, but that’s a different matter. What we do know is that of the few hunts involving a Bastili, the ones that were hunted were normally driven to kill humans.”

“How were they driven to do that?” Derek asked suddenly.

Chris didn’t take the interruption to heart, instead, he answered the Alpha. “People went after their pride.”

“Pride? Like a lion?”

Chris nodded towards Isaac. “Exactly...So a wolf has a pack, and lions have a pride. Now Bastili’s don’t always reside in a pride. They can be solitary animals if they choose and unlike an omega, there’s no loss of hierarchy for being on their own. That said, they tend to band together for protection.”

The pack nodded as the man continued. “It shouldn’t need saying but I’ll let you know regardless, they’re incredibly territorial about what they deem theirs. So if someone is stupid enough to go after a pride member, or suicidal to try and go after a cub, it doesn’t end well.”

“They get paralyzed.” Issac said with a smirk.

Chris nodded towards the blonde before tacking on. “And eaten.”

The pack went dead silent, their bodies tensing upon hearing the hunters words. Chris smirked and quickly waved their fears aside. “It doesn’t happen as much as you think and the majority of the time the person isn’t eaten by the Bastili itself, though I reckon they chew on them a bit...The Bastili tend to bait other animals. So if a human happened to hurt a pride member they’d be stalked and paralyzed, maimed or even killed for their transgression and left where another creature could eat them. The Bastili would then use the human as bait to hunt whatever came after it. The one thing you should remember is that they’ll take on pretty much anything, just because you’re wolves doesn’t mean he’ll back himself into a corner.”

“Is that because they just paralyze whatever is threatening them and go to town?” Erica muttered with a grimace. 

Chris nodded his head. “Pretty much, now this doesn’t happen often so we don’t have a lot to go on. The book covers the three top incidents involving them and the one incident of known adoption. Which is why I brought it.”

“Adoption?” Scott questioned with a frown, the action was unanimous among the rest of the pack who stared at the hunter in a confused fashion.

Chris nodded and quickly explained what he meant. “ This is the important stuff and it’s what you need to focus on. A hunter a few years back came across a small village. Rumors had come to him about a village being terrorized by a Bastili pride and that all those who entered were being killed. So he went to figure out what was going on and see if he could help, well it turns out that the village was being protected by a pride of Bastili. The cats adopted those humans into their pride and anything that was owned by those humans was protected.”

The pack was frozen, staring intently at the hunter as he continued to relay to them all he knew about the supernatural cat that their friend was going to turn into.

“You name it and it was protected... Farm animals, houses whatever, it was all guarded. It was only outsiders who were in any danger and only if someone came through the village and tried to cause trouble. The last incident that prompted the hunter’s arrival had involved an outsider trying to murder someone, the pride killed the man when he attacked one of the villagers. The village had a growing cemetery for those unfortunate enough to mess with their guardians.”Chris smirked as if he found the entire situation amusing, he shrugged a moment later and informed them. “ I don’t know if a Bastili will adopt wolves, but if they can adopt humans...”

“There's a chance.” Scott said hopefully.

Chris smirked at the teen before speaking once more. “There is, the big issue is proving you’re not a threat because when he shifts, he’s going to be keyed up. Just like when you guys went through it the first time.”

“Deaton gave us some things to help with that.” Derek commented idly.

the hunter frowned before asking. “What’d he give you?”

“Catnip.” Erica chimed in helpfully.

the hunter rolled his eyes before saying. “Catnip isn’t going to work on him.”

“Deaton says it will.” Issac piped up. 

Sighing when it appeared that he was getting nowhere the hunter asked. “Can I see what he gave you?”

Derek nodded before jerking his head to Isaac, the boy sprang up and ran back towards Stiles room.

“Alright what else did he give you?”

“A charm to help him focus while he shifts.”

The hunter nodded his head before commenting. “I don’t know if that will do you any good, but it’s worth a shot regardless. How are you going to get him to wear it?”

Scott coughed a bit before stammering out. “Collar.”

The hunter raised a brow at that before commenting. “Alright, well good luck with that one kid. Somehow I don’t see him holding still right after he shifts to let you do that.”

Scott sighed at the hunter's apparent lack of faith in them. Scott knew Stiles wouldn’t like the idea of wearing a collar, but he figured his best friend would see the benefit of not going feral. They all twisted to look as Isaac came back and handed the glass jar with the blue dust in it to Chris, the hunter smirked as he held it up.

“Ah, yeah this stuff isn’t catnip, but I can see why he told you that.”

“What is it” Derek’s voice went hard in an instant as he asked. 

No doubt his previous trust issues surfacing at the thought of being lied too, Chris ignored the Alpha as he explained.

“It's not so much catnip as it is a sedative. It won't knock him out, but Stiles definitely won't have the energy to be trying to maim anyone. He’ll just want to sleep after getting a whiff of this.”

Derek’s tense body relaxed a bit, but the Alpha went on to ask. “It won't hurt him?”

Chris shook his head, offering up a reassuring smile to the Alpha. “No, if anything it’ll make him more agreeable to your presence. Not knowing how he’ll react to you, this is a good tool to use for his first shift.”

Chris laid the jar down on the coffee table before turning to rummage through his backpack. He pulled out a pair of thick gloves, that seemed to have metal along the inside.

“For the first time, just in case.” He said before throwing them on the table.

“Okay? Why would we need those?”

Erica asked skeptically. Chris smirked before asking. “You want to pet him not knowing if he’s going to stick you with his quills? Those can hold up against them, give you a better chance of not laying like a log on the floor for twelve hours.”

Erica pursed her lips before saying. “We wouldn’t be paralyzed that long”

Chris snorted before moving on, not bothering to waste his time in arguing about how the venom would affect the wolves. 

“The whole point of all of this is to keep him from trying to get out if he feels threatened and tries to bolt. If Stiles doesn’t trust you when he shifts he’s going to attack and run and if he can't get out, he’s going to attack again.”

“When is he going to shift? We weren’t sure if the moon affected him or not.” Scott chimed in. 

Chris shook his head before telling the pack. “No full moon for him, Bastili’s are more affected by the changing of seasons, but seeing as its months before summer hits, he’s probably going to be shifting for the first time around the eclipse. It mimics the changing of seasons, what with the sun being obscured at all.”

“That’s a little over a week away.” Chris gave Scott a straight-faced look of ‘yeah I know’. The Alpha werewolf sighed.  “So we have about a week and a half to get him somewhat back to normal and prepared for his first shift.”

Chris nodded his head. “It's not going to be a walk in the park, but it's manageable. You’ve done more with less.”

Scott gave a waning smile to the man before looking to Derek. “How full is your basement?”

The Alpha snorted back at the boy before saying. “We can get it cleaned out.”

“You actually might want to just risk the damage up here.”

The two Alpha’s looked to the hunter before Derek asked in an annoyed tone. “And why would I let Stiles tear apart the place when there’s a good space downstairs that he can tear to hell and not break out of?”

The hunter didn’t mince any words with Derek as he stated. “You ever seen a cat in a cage?”

Scowling Derek rebutted. “Wolves don’t like being caged either, but we’ve all managed it.”

The others gave subtle nods.

shaking his head Chris replied. “Fine, it's your place. I’m just warning you that backing him into a corner isn’t going to end well for any of you.”

“So we should let him tear apart the loft instead?”

Chris glowered at Derek before saying. “How do you know he’s going to tear it apart? I and Deaton have given you tools to help prevent that.”

Derek shook his head before stating factually. “All shifters have a moment or two where they lose it, he’s not going to be any different.”

Chris tilted his head at that before remarking. “True, I’m sure Stiles’ going to freak out...But somehow I just don’t picture him as the violent maiming type and his species aren’t necessarily known for it either.”

“So it makes sense that his body accepted the venom.” Issac replied to the hunter. 

Chris gave a nod. “It's true that there is some link between a person either accepting the bite because they fit that particular animal, but you can turn into a different animal than the one you're bitten by. Stile’s situation is unique as he doesn’t actually have a bite on him, it's in his blood...Almost like being born into it.” He cast a glance towards Derek as he mentioned that, before looking back to the others. “I’d like to think that because his spark chose this, that he won't fight it as much.”

“Is there anything we can do to make this easier?”

Chris shook his head at Scott. “Sorry kid, you’ve been through this before. You shift when you shift, whatever happens, happens and then you pick yourself up and keep on moving. Stiles has all of you, I’m sure he’ll be fine. Just prepare him mentally as much as you can. Don’t sugar coat things, let him know its okay to flip out.”

“He won't need our permission to do that.” Erica intoned dryly. 

Chris smirked at her before saying. “I’m sure he won't, but the more stress he’s under before the shift the more likely he is to lose himself to it.”

She nodded to him before stating. “Well if he does, we’ll be there to bring him back.”

“When it gets closer, a couple hours before the eclipse I could set up a mountain ash line for you.”

Derek shook his head and firmly stated. “No.”

The hunter shrugged before reminding him. “It would keep him inside.”

“And all of us.” There was a bitter edge to the Alpha’s words, no one dared to bring up exactly why Derek was so against the hunter laying the mountain ash line. Though Chris did try to defend himself to the Alpha. “I’d come back and break it Derek.”

The Alpha’s steely gaze settled the matter, shaking his head Chris told the pack that he’d do all he could to help and all they need do is call and he’d come over.

“Thanks, ya know for everything.” Scott mumbled. 

“No problem kid.” Chris zipped up the backpack he’d brought with him.

“We’ll let you know how Stiles does if we need your assistance.-”

“You’ve got my number.”

The hunter grabbed his bag before giving a wave. “Tell Stiles not to freak out so much, there are plenty of worse things he couldn’t have been turned into.”

Scott snorted at the hunter's humor, but rose and escorted him out of the loft. When Scott returned he found Derek alone.

“They’re with Stiles.”

Scott approached the surely Alpha, coming to stand beside him in front of the large window.

“So...Stiles isn’t human anymore...Or won't be soon.” He gave a sidelong glance to the Alpha, just enough to see that Derek was scowling at him. Scott shrugged as if he wasn’t being obtuse for a reason.

“Just saying, he’s no longer in danger of being hurt cause he’s human and I really don’t think there are more Bastili around for him to find a pride.”

“Go away Scott.” Derek growled.

Smirking Scott turned and told the other Alpha. “He was always going to be a part of my pack. You know that I know that, his...This change-it changes a lot more than just Stiles, Derek.”

“I know.” The Alpha sighed as he glanced back out the window. “This isn’t what I wanted for him, Stiles was supposed to have the choice. That’s how the gift is intended.”

“I know and besides me, it has been, guess me and Stiles are too much alike and have to go about things the wrong way. However it happened, Stiles’ not human anymore and he needs us, he needs the pack.”

Derek nodded his head before turning and walking away. Scott frowned about to call out to the Alpha when he realized just where the Alpha was going. Derek wasn’t going to his bedroom as he had initially assumed the man would, he was going towards the hallway, towards Stiles.

“Come on Scott, the packs waiting.”

Nodding his head Scott ran after the older werewolf.

 

********************************

 

Boyd had listened to what his girlfriend and Isaac had to say about Chris’s visit and what he’d brought, every few moments the Beta’s sent glances Stiles’s way to make sure the human wasn’t waking up yet. The kid was sleeping soundly though and it was Isaac who dared to question if he’d been sleeping too long.

“Uh, its been like five hours guys...Should we wake him?”

Erica frowned a moment before shaking her head. “He probably just needs the sleep.”

Issac was quiet a moment before he scooted further up the bed, tentatively he reached out a hand to feel the boys forehead. The other Beta’s stilled, watching and waiting to see what Isaac would find, Deaton hadn’t been sure if a fever would set in or not seeing as Stiles had already accepted the Bastili venom. The boy pulled his hand back just as Derek and Scott came in.

“Is he okay?”

Issac nodded his head before saying. “He feels a little warm, but not really feverish.”

Scott walked over to test his friend's forehead himself, he quickly nodded as he agreed with Isaac. Stiles could very well just be warm from being covered in blankets and surrounded by the living furnaces that were the werewolves leaning around him.

“Seem’s okay, maybe we should take the blanket off of him?”

“Um no.” They all glanced to Erica and she scrunched up her face before reminding them. “Catheter, I do not need to see Stiles naked or whatever.”

Scott snorted before reminding her. “He’s wearing pants Erica, the catheter is just sticking out the top of them.”

Before she could argue, Scott moved the blanket off of his friend and showed them all that Stiles was indeed wearing Derek's pants and the tubing was simply sticking out the top of said pants. Nothing of Stiles was showing.

“See, it's fine.”

Erica nodded her head before asking. “Does that hurt?”

Scott blinked before smirking. “Uh well, I don’t know actually, never had one...But mom says their uncomfortable.”

“Yeah she doesn’t have the same piping if you know what I mean, so how would she know what it feels like?”

The boys chuckled at the girl's haughty response, Scott went onto explain. “Well she’s been a nurse for ages, she’s probably asked her patients.”

“Ew.”

Scott smirked before saying. “We can absorb peoples pain and that grosses you out?”

“Well yeah...I mean who goes around asking if putting a tube in some guys penis hurts? It's just weird.”

Scott chuckled at the girl's disgusted face before candidly remarking. “Well Stiles never had a problem interrogating his roommates”

“Huh? What roommates?” Issac asked curiously.

“When he stayed in the hospital, he had a roomie, two people to a room. It's normal. Stiles asked that poor guy everything under the Sun. Including some rather touchy things about why he was there and if what the nurses were doing to him hurt as much as it looked like it did.”

The others snorted.

“Figures he’d do something like that.” Erica muttered.

Scott nodded his head before musing out loud. “Come to think of it, after that he didn’t have a roommate.”

“Seriously? Like they moved the guy away so Stiles wouldn’t bother him?”

Scott shrugged before saying. “All I know is from then on out, Stiles always had a private room. I figured at the time it was a perk of having the sheriff as your father...But maybe it wasn’t.”

The group were talking back and forth casually. No one made a comment on the fact that Derek was leaning near the window instead of hiding in his bedroom. It was easy for them to all recognize that with Stile’s coming shift, the boy met the Alpha’s requirements to stay in the pack. There was no need to bring up the sore subject, so the pack let it drop and moved on. Issac was laying beside Stiles on the bed, occasionally touching the boy's body to make himself feel more connected to his friend. Erica was leaning against Boyd as they sat at the foot of the bed and Scott had taken up position on the other side of Stiles. Reclining by his friends head, he had his arm wrapped around the boys head, not touching, but near him. He’d carefully moved the boys I.V. Tubing out of the way before he had settled in.

“So uh, the foods probably beyond cold now...I’m pretty sure you can all smell how appetizing that is.” They all scrunched up their faces, they could indeed smell the less than stellar scent that came from the hour's cold food sitting around.

Erica sighed before saying. “You're forgiven, but only because this was important.”

Scott snorted before saying. “Thanks Erica.” In a dry tone. 

The others smirked when the girl didn’t react to his obvious sarcasm.

“Well none of us have eaten yet, maybe we should send someone into town to pick up pizza.” Issac suggested.

“You going?” Erica prompted. 

The boy sighed when his own idea was used against him before saying. “Fine.”

The blonde rose from the bed and headed towards the door when Derek called out to him.

“There’s some money on the side table.”

The boy nodded only to pause again when Boyd shifted, letting Erica slide to lay across Stiles legs as he got up.

“I’ll go with you”

Issac smirked before saying. “Cool, we’ll be back.”

The others nodded and watched them go, Erica sighed as she laid her head down on her arms. Laying across the bed and Stiles legs.

“What are the chances that the boys forget extra olives?”

Scott gave Derek a smirk as he answered Erica. “Pretty good since Isaac hates them.”

She huffed as she shifted to glare at him, the Alpha smirked back at her.

“There’s some in the kitchen.” Derek informed the girl.

The girls scowl lightened some, giving a haughty nod towards Derek she muttered. “Fine. I suppose that’ll work.”

Scott rolled his eyes before turning his attention towards Derek. “The real question is if they get enough pizza.”

Derek shook his head, having this many wolves under one roof tended to be spendy when it came to meal times. Not that they didn’t all pitch in, but over time feeding this many wolves as much as they could eat was sometimes astounding even for Derek.

“Isaac might not know to get extra’s but Boyd will.”

Derek ignored Erica’s comment as his eyes caught movement, he smirked before asking. “Have a good nap?”

Scott sat up and looked at Stiles to see the boy blinking at them, Erica rose up on her elbows to smirk at him.

“Well someone looks awake.”

‘ _ Shut up, I’m trying here...Do you know how hard it is to wake up when you can't rub your own eyes? No, of course, you don’t. _ ’

A few blinks later and the boy seemed to be focused enough as his eyes flittered around the room, Scott patted the boy's arm, gaining his attention.

“Isaac and Boyd stepped out to get us pizza, when they get back we have pack business to talk about.”

‘ _ Seriously? I thought you already went for food and A pack meeting now? I can't even talk dude. How is that going to be productive? Let’s face it we all know you guys are hopeless if it wasn’t for me and now you’re going to try and do this on your own...Scotty, I feel sorry for you. _ ’

Scott just smiled at his friend before glancing towards Derek, the Alpha raised a brow before scowling as Scott turned to Stiles and informed his friend in a happy tone. “So Derek’s stopped being a jerk, the pack’s not going to break up after all.”

‘ _ Wait what? I go to sleep for a bit and magically everything's fixed? Fuck no, what the hell happened? Scott, I swear to god man you better tell me _ .’

Scott smirked as he looked over to Derek, the Alpha was letting out a low growl. “Right Derek?” Scott knew he was pushing the other Alpha, but he wanted to make sure Stiles heard it from both of them and actually believed them. 

The older werewolf snorted before saying in a biting tone. “The packs fine.”

_ ‘Are you sure? That wasn’t very convincing and a few hours ago you were kicking us to the curb because of me. Damn no more napping for me, I can’t trust you guys not to do something when my back is turned...Well, you know what I mean _ .’

“Don’t mind him, Stiles, he’s been a grump since he was proven wrong.”

Derek growl was audible this time to the paralyzed boy as he glared at Erica. The Beta smirked innocently up at the man before saying. “But that’s okay, we love you anyways.”

Derek shook his head as he turned to stare out the window, Erica smirked and turned to wink at Stiles.

‘ _ Holy shit, what the hell did I miss? Like seriously guys, what happened? You couldn’t have woken me up for all of this? _ ’

Stiles looked towards Scott hoping his friend would catch a clue and start talking, but the werewolf just smiled at him and relaxed next to him.

‘ _ Clueless lovable idiot _ .’

Erica shifted across Stiles' legs once more before saying. “I never thought I’d be laying on top of you Stiles.” She said with a wicked tone to her voice. 

‘ _ Ha ha your hilarious, Boyd would rip my spine from my body Erica. So no not playing that game, besides your...You. I love you I do, but no.’ _

Scott and Derek both snorted to the flirty girl she ignored the Alpha’s as she stared into Stiles' eyes. The boy let out another deep sigh before his eyes flitted over to Derek, the Alpha raised a brow at the boy before saying.

“If you want her to stop, you better start talking back.”

‘ _ Your an ass Derek Hale. Don’t you think if I could I would? I mean come on, I would be having a field day with this shit if I could.’ _

Derek smirked at the boy almost as if he understood what the boy was thinking before he looked to Scott as the boy spoke to him.

“That’s pretty mean dude.”

“Don’t call me dude.”

Erica chuckled at the Alpha before telling him. “Hate to break your heart Derek, but dude is the least of your worries when it comes to him and Stiles.”

“Thanks Erica.” Scott muttered with a confused look towards the girl, unsure if that was her way of backing him and Stiles or her way of taunting them all.

‘ _ Yeah thanks Erica _ .’

Derek snorted before saying. “I’m aware.”

‘ _ Oh...That’s not good _ .’

Scott grinned at his fellow Alpha before saying pointedly. “Its mostly Stiles’s fault.”

‘ _ Traitor _ .’

Derek smirked before replying. “I know that as well.”

‘ _ I’m back to hating you all, just so you know. _ ’

Scott shook his head before muttering to them as he locked eyes with Stiles. “When he gets his voice back we are never going to hear the end of this.”

‘ _ Damn right your not, better buckle up buttercup cause I am going to make your ears bleed. _ ’

“It's not like he can move yet, I can just leave the room.”

_ ‘I’ll find you, once I can move again...I will find you and trap you in mountain ash and it’ll be all over sweetheart. Done, hours upon hours of random trivia _ .’

Scott rolled his eyes at Erica before saying. “ You're missing his rambling just as much as we are”

Erica pursed her lips a moment before glancing towards Stiles, finally, she shrugged before admitting. “It's a little strange for the place to be so quiet.”

Scott smirked at the Beta, well aware that the declaration she’d just made was as close to the truth as he’d get while Stiles was awake. The werewolves perked up when they heard something, Stiles figured it was Boyd and Isaac returning and a moment later he was proved to be right. Issac came in and smiled around a large bite of pizza.

“Foods here.”

The others snorted before heading towards the door, the teen walked over to sit besides Stiles while the others went to get their share. He looked at Stiles before saying. “I hope you're not too hungry, I know Scott’s mom was worried about you going too long without food and all, but we don’t have a clue how to not make you choke.”

‘ _ Yeah choking would suck, I’m hungry, but oddly it's not bothering me as much as it was before...Maybe the healing thing is slowing my metabolism. That’s kinda neat. Besides once I can chew my own food I’ll just make you go get me pizza or curly fries...Mmm yeah, curly fries. _ ’

The paralyzed boy watched as the others came drifting in, their own plates in hand. The pack found their places around the room and happily munched away. Going back numerous times to get more.

‘ _ Wolves, you eat like wolves. _ ’

Stiles laughed to himself about that fact. Of course, he’d already taken notice of the pack’s ravenous ability to put food away, but now that he was being forced to watch it instead of just noticing it he found it hilarious. 

Issac craned his head to the side before mentioning. “Okay, what’s so amusing to you?”

The pack shifted to look at Stiles, Stiles’s eyes were focused on Isaac as he’d just spoken to him. Of course, the human couldn’t say anything so they were left wondering what was going on. The others sniffing the air before finding why Isaac had asked the question in the first place. Stiles’s scent had changed to a lighter tone, it wasn’t as bogged down with his fear or pain. He was amused. Scott grinned to his friend.

“Has to be something about us.”

Stiles glanced to Scott. ‘ _ Give the man a prize. _ ’

“Yeah but what? We're not doing anything” Erica said petulantly.

Scott shrugged his shoulders before stating. “Well were eating.”

“So?”

“So are any of you covered in pizza sauce cause that’s the type of humor he has.”

The wolves glanced at each other before they all shook their heads.

“Huh...Okay, no clue then.”

‘ _ Oh my lovable idiot of a friend. You were so close to being right and just missed the target. _ ’

The wolves finished their meals before getting rid of the plates. It was, therefore, a little surprising when Erica came back from the kitchen not alone but with Melissa in tow. A scowling Melissa who was glaring at her son.

“Oh shit, sorry I meant to call you.”

“Scott.”

Smiling at his mom he dragged her from the room saying loudly.

“Come on you probably haven't eaten and there’s still pizza.”

The other wolves shook their heads, knowing the boy was covering for why he needed to speak with her in private.

 

***************************

 

“And that’s about it.”

Shaking her head Melissa asked. “So he doesn’t know yet?”

“No, we wanted to wait until we were all here and then we were starving so...Yeah. I figure once you leave for the night we’ll tell him.”

Melissa gave her some a look before telling him. “Maybe I should stay, mediate things?”

Scott shook his head. “No, I-I know you want to help, but this...What he’s going to go through. It's pack. You won't understand and Deaton and Chris said to just lay it out for him.”

Melissa was hesitant at first, but seeing the determination in her sons face she finally ceded to his wishes and nodded. “Alright sweetie, if you're sure.”

“I am, but can you come double check the lines and his wounds...They shouldn’t need much cause their healing and all-”

“Scott, that’s why I came, I am more than happy to take a look at him.”

Scott sighed before saying. “Thanks, mom”

“No problem sweetie now let's go see to Stiles.”

  
  



	11. Emoting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Scott have to tell Stiles what Deaton has found and Stiles finds that some of the toxin's effects are finally subsiding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, well I took a week off from updating to take care of my mom after her surgery. I just couldn't find the energy to edit/post while getting two hours of sleep, go figure. Anywho, I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter, let me know by writing a comment XD.

It had been nearly twenty minutes since Scott had dragged his mother out for ‘dinner’. Stiles had been a bit confused by it but shrugged it off when he got distracted by Boyd and Isaac arm wrestling. The apparent challenge was the result of the two ‘fighting’ over the last slice of pizza, secretly Stiles knew that Isaac was just doing it because it was fun. Derek was shaking his head at the pair as they used the foot of the bed as a table.

“It's not firm enough for that.”

The Beta’s ignored him before flashing their eyes at each other and grinning, Erica was rolling her eyes from where she lay beside Stiles, having taken up residence in Isaac’s normal spot.

“Alright, one ... Two ... Three ...”

The wolves strained to push the other's arm in their favor, the bed wasn’t helping as it compressed the harder they pushed against each other.

‘ _ you two are morons, this isn’t going to work. Derek told you so _ .’

Still, the two Beta’s struggled, until Isaac twisted his shoulder a bit and the bed dipped too much, sending both Isaac and Boyd tumbling to the floor. Erica barked out a laugh at her pack mates.

“I told you so.” Derek chimed in a ‘I told you so’ manner.

Scott and Melissa chose that moment to walk in and pause at the sight of the two Beta’s climbing up from the floor.

“Okay...Don’t want to know.”

Scott shook his head at the two before motioning his mom over to Stiles, Melissa smiled at the boy as his eyes followed her.

“I see someone is more reactive today.”

‘ _ Yep _ .’

“I’m just going to check the lines and everything and double check your wounds. From what Scott told me you probably won't be needing much more care and he said they’d already lowered your morphine intake after Deaton came by so pretty soon you’ll be on your own again.”

‘ _ I’m quite okay with that. _ ’

She checked the I.V. Catheter in his neck before cleaning the lines, she nodded as she went liking what she was seeing. She gently peeled away the boys wrist bandages before shaking her head. Stiles glanced down now that he could see them and was amazed, they were scabbed over, no longer open as they should have been without the Bastili venom.

‘ _ Well damn, I do have superpowers. _ ’

Melissa glanced up to her son who was standing across Stiles bed. “They don’t need to be covered any longer unless the scab’s start breaking open, he’s good.”

Scott beamed at his friend. “Awesome, hear that Stiles, a little bit more and you’ll be right as rain dude.”

‘ _ You have no idea how pleased that makes me. _ ’

Once she had stripped the rest of the bandages from Stiles did Melissa glance to his bandaged arm, she frowned before mentioning.

“If his open wounds have been healing like this...There’s a good chance his arm is healing as well.”

Scott glanced to Stiles’s wrapped shoulder. “You think it's safe to take it off?”

Melissa was silent a moment as she stared at the wrapped appendage before stating. “At any rate, it wouldn't hurt to check, if its still not healed enough to leave it, we can re-bandage him.”

Scott nodded and accepted the scissors his mom passed him, kneeling down beside Stiles on the bed he gently snipped at the wrappings before beginning to unravel the cloth. Once he had two sections started. Scott took the upper half of the now sliced bandages while Melissa took the lower, together they got stile’s arm unwrapped and threw away the bandages only to look on in amazement at the progress the arm had made. It was deeply bruised, still, a tad swollen at the joint, but by far it had healed.

“Well okay then.”

Scott glanced to his mom before gesturing towards his friend’s arm. “So is he good?”

Melissa shook her head. “No, not quite, he doesn’t need it wrapped to his chest anymore though. It’d actually be good for you to start moving his arm in small motions, let the joint feel how his arm is supposed to move again. From the looks of it though, this looks like a shoulder that’s been healing two weeks at least.”

Scott whistled at that. “Okay, well that’s uh definitely faster than normal.”

The pack nodded behind him as Melissa gathered a few rolls of bandages.

“Just wrap up his shoulder joint and give it something to brace itself against until its fully healed.”

She turned to Stiles and smiled. “You’re doing great honey, once you can move around a bit you should try to get some strength back in it.”

‘ _ Okay yeah sure, no problem there...This is so weird. I’m almost back to normal and yet I can't move. How is that fair? I thought this stuff was supposed to wear off, granted I’m eternally grateful to not be in agony anymore, but still. What the hell? _ ’

Melissa smiled at Stiles before surveying her son’s work, she gave him a nod before pulling back.

“Well, he’s all taken care of, call me as soon as he show’s signs of being mobile and I can come to remove the catheter.”

‘ _ Oh please do, it’s nice to know this isn’t forever cause watching my friends deal with this is just too much for me. Nobody should be handling another man’s pee, it's just wrong I tell you _ .’

Melissa then glanced towards Stiles and with a tilt of her head smiled. “You never cease to amaze me.” She admitted, then with a chuckle added. “At least this surprise is better than the last few.”

‘ _ Hey now, not everything is my fault. Talk to your son, ya know Scott? He’s done his fair share of stupid things, many of which I would remind you have been since he’s a wolf _ .’

Of course, Melissa didn’t hear any of that, what she did hear was Scott’s derisive comment.

“You don’t like any of his surprises.”

She gave him a pointed look. “I haven’t liked that many of yours either.”

‘ _ Yes! _ ’

Scott nodded his head in a blushing manner. “Right...Sorry.”

Melissa shook her head in exasperation to her son before saying. “Call me if he improves, if he can talk then there’s a good chance that he can swallow without choking.”

“Don’t worry as soon as he’s griping at us we’ll call.” Isaac spoke up.

Melissa chuckled at the teen before saying. “I’m sure you’ll know the moment he discovers his voice again.”

‘ _ Laugh it up, cause when I get it back I’m never going to shut up _ .’

The nurse packed up her things before kissing Scott goodnight, once the nurse was gone did the pack settle back into their usual positions. It was stony silent a moment which made Stiles wonder if he was about to be told he was adopted. He laughed inwardly at his own joke before focusing on Scott, the Alpha was refusing to look at him.

‘ _ What did you do? You look like a kicked puppy and for you, that’s actually possible. So who kicked you? _ ’

Derek sighed before taking the initiative to start the awkward conversation when it appeared that Scott was either unable or refusing to do so.

“When I and Scott were out today Deaton called.”

‘ _ Okay, no problem so far, well other than you having to deal with Deaton. Let’s face it Sourwolf we all know you hate the guy _ .’

“He ran some tests on your blood samples, he was curious about your healing abilities and wanted to see if they’d stick around.”

‘ _ Oh okay, so am I gonna stay like Wolverine? I’m not too shaken up about that by the way...Wolverine’s cool can totally dig being like Wolverine. _ ’

Derek looked around at the pack who refused to look up from their own laps before continuing, he couldn’t fault them for reacting the way they were. They all knew that this wasn’t something that Stiles had wanted, but they couldn’t avoid the subject either.

“Deaton found that your blood cells were assimilating the Bastili venom instead of just using it to heal you.”

‘ _ So now I’m a borg? How many things can I be like Derek? Pick one for christ's sake. _ ’

The Alpha didn’t waver as he stared into the boy’s eyes. “What that means is that your spark chose to use the Bastili venom in a way that we didn’t know was possible.”

‘ _ Wait wait wait. Hold on a sec, spark...My spark? Okay, whatever Deaton said he’s obviously been around all that mystical voodoo stuff too long. _ ’

Sensing the boys shift in mood, the boy’s scent shifting to portray his anxiety, Derek continued. He knew it was best to get it all out in the open.

“Your spark...The hunters when they gave you the venom to make you paralyzed, your spark latched onto it, to save you.”

‘ _ Okay, not something we didn’t know before man...So far not so bad...So far I’m okay.’ _

“It turned the venom into an asset...Making a pseudo bite from it. You're becoming a Bastili.”

‘ _ Uh what now? No...No that is not how things work. You see you need teeth and growliness and blood...You know bitey like things...Not a needle and a dumbass hunter. _ ’

The wolves flinched as the boy’s scent changed on a dime, flooded with anxiety, anger, and fear. It was a chemical cocktail that showed the boys confusion as to what he was hearing all while the boys face remained devoid of any actual emotion.

With the onset of his best friends turmoil, Scott finally addressed his friend. “Stiles.”

The boy’s eyes frantically searched out his friend. ‘ _ Scott please tell me this is some practical joke, that Derek found his funny side or something...Anything dude. I cannot be becoming...That, hell I don’t even know what that is! I’m human Scott, human, please tell him. _ ’

Scott didn’t do that though, instead, the Alpha tried to calm his friend. “It’s okay, we're going to figure all of this out. You’re with us, we’ll manage your first shift and whatever abilities you might have. You’re not alone in this Stiles, we’re with you on this.”

The pack raised their heads to nod alongside the Alpha, Stiles glanced at all of them in turn before looking back to Scott. ‘ _ Your not lying...None of you are lying...This is happening...Really happening. I'm-I'm not human. I'm- I'm not human anymore _ .’

The pack freaked as a collective as they watched the boys eyes roll into his head, Scott calling out his friends name as he gently shook his shoulder.

“Come on Stiles, Stiles! Come on man. Look at me.”

“He panicked.” Scott glanced to Derek to see the Alpha staring at Stiles. 

“You think!”

Derek glared at Scott before saying. “Let him process it, Scott, he just passed out. He’ll wake up in a few minutes.”

Scott shook his head before exclaiming. “He’s going to give himself brain damage, he’ll freak and pass out again and then do it again. And again.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the dramatic teen before stating. “He can't do it forever and whatever brain damage his hyperventilating might cause would heal.” The dry tone the Alpha used when attempting to get the boy to see reason wasn’t appreciated.

Scott stared at the Alpha in shock a moment before he growled. “That’s not funny!”

Derek sighed before saying. “Scott, Stiles’ okay. He’s scared and probably angry, but he’s going to be okay. Settle down, if he sees all of you upset he’s going to get upset.”

Scott’s anger was snuffed out like a candle when he heard the Alpha’s words, he glanced to Stiles and nodded. “Yeah...Okay calm... I can do calm.”

Erica snorted before saying. “No actually you can't right now...Take some breaths.”

Scott nodded his head and tried to slow his own heartbeat, he had managed to take three deep breaths when Stiles’s eyes began to flutter. 

Scott leaned closer and smiled gently when his friend began to rouse. “Hey, Stiles...Come on, that’s it. Wake up dude.”

‘ _ Wha-what happened? Wait did I pass out? Shit...Wait I-oh-oh my god. _ ’

The wolves winced at the boys skyrocketing fear.

“Hey-Hey Stiles look at me. Stiles.”

Stiles' eyes weren’t focusing on any of the pack, his mind whirling like a hurricane. That is until there was a loud roar. Stiles blinked before looking over toward Derek, just in time to see the man shift out of his wolf state. The others were staring at the man shocked by his sudden action.

Derek smirked back at them. “Calm down, you’re fine.”

‘ _ Did-Did you just roar at me? Like...Like I was a wolf? _ ’

Scott smirked at Derek before looking at Stiles who was staring at the Alpha. His scent told them he was confused, but the fear had subsided by his apparent shock at Derek’s actions.

“Stiles.” The boy’s eyes flitted over to him. “It's okay.”

‘ _ But it’s not, its not okay Scott. How is this okay? Tell me how this is okay because this is not okay! _ ’

The teen gave his friend a sympathetic look.

Doing what he could, Scott tried to lighten the mood with something he knew Stiles ordinarily would get a kick out of. “On the plus side we know chaining you up in a basement and feeding you rats won't work, good job on the research dude.” The others stared at Scott like he was nuts until a small glimmer of relief washed over Stiles’s scent.

‘ _ Scott...You idiot. Okay...Okay, we can do this, I have no idea how...But sure. We can get through this, it won't be so bad right? Right...Yeah, I’m right...Course I’m right. _ ’

“He’s overthinking again.” Isaac muttered. 

Scott smirked before he reached out and patted stile’s arm. “Hey, just stop a moment. Just stop thinking.”

‘ _ Do you know me? I never stop thinking, I’m always thinking. I think that’s what I do. _ ’

Scott smirked before snapping his fingers in front of the boy’s eyes, they focused on the fingers before flitting back to Scott’s face.

“There we go. Okay, so we already talked to Deaton and to Chris and we’ve got this handled. There’s nothing for you to worry about, just trust us, were a pack.”

‘ _ Pack...Yeah, yeah pack. A pack is good, a pack is great...You guys can control me, right? I mean your Alpha’s that’s what Alpha’s do...You control the Beta’s and omega’s and keep everything hunky dory. Okay...No problem. _ ’

Scott stared into Stiles’s eyes a moment before telling him. “Mom knows about everything, but I haven’t told your dad anything more than that you were doing good. We won't tell him okay? Not till your ready”

‘ _ Shit my dad...Oh shit, this is not good Scott. This is so not good, how the hell am I supposed to tell him this? How do you tell your dad that your spark is turning you into a cat? He doesn’t even know what a spark is Scott! _ ’

The wolves shifted a bit as the boy’s anxiety grew the longer he was left to think, Scott tried to reign in Stiles. Talking calmly to him about how things would be alright, but all the paralyzed boy could think about was how his dad was going to flip.

“Stiles.”

The boy’s frantic eyes flitted over to Isaac, the Beta smirked at him kindly before saying. “Your dad’s not going to freak out man. Think about it, he took all of this pretty well.” The boy waved to all of them to make a point.

Stiles blinked before his brain slowed down. ‘ _ Yeah...Yeah okay, your right, he-he freaked out a bit, but he was cool about it. Well except when we got into trouble, but he’d be like that no matter what so...Okay yeah, okay. _ ’

The pack smiled as the discerned the boy’s scent calming some the longer they reassured him that things would be alright. Stiles glanced down to the foot of the bed when Erica’s hand wrapped around his ankle.

“We're not going anywhere and Isaac’s right, your dad will understand. He might request to shoot those hunters, but he’ll understand”

_ ‘Ha yeah...I could see him doing that _ .’

The others chuckled at the girl’s statement, she smirked at Stiles before letting go of his ankle.

“So have you tried to move anything other than your eyes? Let’s get this show on the road, sooner you can bitch at us the sooner you can eat pizza” she ribbed him. 

Stiles snorted before his eyes glanced to Scott, the Alpha chiming in. “He’s going to want curly fries.”

‘ _ You know me so wel _ l.’

Erica rolled her eyes. “Right, how could I forget.”

‘ _ I don’t know, their only the single best invention of our time. _ ’

Boyd shook his head at them all before speaking. “We can get fries.”

‘ _ No, curly fries Boyd, there is a difference. Straight fries are boring, curly fries are awesome. _ ’

Scott smirked before looking back towards Stiles. “See, we got this handled, but Erica does have a point. Have you tried moving anything? A toe or your fingers?”

‘ _ Really? You think I’m worried about fingers and toes? Hell no man, I wanna talk. Do you know how many questions I have brewing in my head right now? Well, you probably do cause you know me, but still. _ ’

Stiles sighed at the werewolf before he tried to do as asked. His fingers and toes were watched by the wolves, but nothing happened. Stiles closed his eyes after his failed attempt.

“Hey, it's okay.”

‘ _ This sucks big time.’ _

“Its just too soon, you’ll be back to normal before you know it.”

Stiles opened his eyes to glance at Isaac. ‘ _ Dude, I’m turning into a supernatural cat. This is the very opposite of normal.’ _

Isaac smiled at Stiles, never knowing what the human was thinking. Stiles found it very annoying that he couldn’t even glare at them yet. At least if he could move his face around he would be able to emote. He had a lot of things to emote at the moment. Sighing again, Stiles closed his eyes. He felt what had to be Scott touch his arm.

‘ _ I’m okay, just let me think.’ _

“Everythings going to work out.”

‘ _ Yeah...Sure. _ ’

When Stiles didn’t react to him touching him Scott glanced to the rest of the pack. The Beta’s were staring on in concern. Derek was watching curiously but wasn’t frowning at the sight before him. Scott caught the other Alpha’s eyes, but Derek simply raised a brow at him. 

Sighing Scott turned back towards Stiles and patted his friend’s arm. “Alright, take it easy for a bit.”

‘ _ Don’t have much of a choice Scott, I can't move. _ ’

The eerie silence that befell the room was a startling contrast to the previous hours and day where joking had been heard. The pack stayed as they were, surrounding the boy’s bedside. Isaac curled up against Stiles’ bad arm, careful of the shoulder which was still healing, he had placed his hand on the teen’s forearm to let him know he was there. Erica and Boyd remained at the foot of the bed, the pair holding hands as they laid by the boy’s feet. Scott took up the other side of the boys bed, sitting against the headboard and surveying the pack in much the same manner as Derek was. The older Alpha hadn’t left his station by the window, he’d glance about the room a while before staring out the window a moment before doing another sweep of the room.  All they could do now was wait.

 

**************************************

 

It wasn’t until a few hours later that Stiles opened his eyes again when he did he found the room was dark. Stiles began to panic before his brain registered that he could still feel Isaac next to him touching his arm.

‘oh okay, not alone, just night time...Must have fallen asleep again.’

Stiles focused on the rest of his body and was surprised to find that Isaac wasn’t the only one who had stayed. Scott was still reclined against the headboard, his head leaning against Stiles’s pillow, his hair ticking Stiles'’ shoulder. Erica and Boyd were gone though and a quick glance to the window showed that Derek was too.

‘ _ Okay, so now I just get to sit here in apparent boredom all night cause I still can't frickin move! God, I hate this, they could have least moved a T.V. In here or something. Infomercials would be more entertaining than staring at the walls all night. _ ’

Sighing Stiles let his eyes trail around the room a moment before he closed them. There was no sense keeping them open when he couldn’t even see much. Stiles let his mind wander back to all he’d learned. His spark and Stiles was still trying to wrap his brain around that one...His spark had actually made a ‘bite’ out of the venom the hunters had used to paralyze him. It seemed impossible, even with all he knew about the supernatural world. Still, as much as Stiles hadn’t wanted the bite, he supposed the best thing he could do was accept the fact that it was happening. This was happening. He was becoming this cat creature and soon he’d be a member of the supernatural world in ways he hadn’t dared dream of while being human. At least Stiles had a pack right? There were others who were bitten who weren’t as fortunate to have others to support them. At least Stiles had that. His mind slowly drifted back off into sleep as his brain calmed upon realizing he wasn’t alone. The pack was going to be with him every step of the way.

 

*******

 

When Stiles next woke it was to the sounds of someone sputtering out.

“Please don’t say anything.”

Stiles heard a snort before what could only be Erica replied. “Who said I cared?”

‘ _ Oh Erica. _ ’

Stiles peeled open his eyes and blinked a couple of times, once his vision had cleared he was able to lock onto the two werewolves. Isaac was frowning at his fellow Beta, trying to put up a mediocre dispute to what the girl was doing. Erica was standing a few paces away from Isaac with her arms crossed over her chest and a sly smirk on her face.

“come on, I’ll...I don’t know. I’ll do anything, just don’t say anything.”

The girl raised a brow before asking. “Anything?”

‘ _ Don’t do it, man, it’s a trap. Run away. _ ’

Isaac sighed before nodding. “Fine yeah, anything.”

Erica smirked before nodding. “Alright then, we have a deal. I won't tell anyone your dirty little secret.” Erica’s predatory grin was superseded by the sauntering steps of the woman as she left Isaac in the room with Stiles.

Isaac sighed before glowering at the back of his pack mate as she waltzed off, Isaac twisted around to face Stiles and his eyes widened.  “Did you see that?” Isaac frowned a moment later before he asked in a wary tone. “Did you hear that?” 

Stiles blinked at the boy. ‘ _ Uh yeah dude, you kinda woke me up _ .’

Isaac squinted at the boy before asking. “Is that a yes?”

‘ _ What’d you do that you're so worried about others finding out about? _ ’

Isaac walked over towards the bed and sat by Stiles' hip, he gave a nervous glance towards the doorway before looking back to Stiles.

“Blink once if you saw that.”

Stiles was laughing in his head at the boy’s attempts to converse with him, regardless he did what Isaac asked and blinked.

Isaac sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Shit...Okay, fine I’ll do whatever you want man, just don’t tell anybody alright?”

‘ _ Oh this is getting better and better, do tell. What did Isaac do? _ ’

The teen looked down at Stiles before beseechingly asking. “You won’t say anything will you?”

Stiles stared at the boy. 

Isaac frowned before asking. “Uh, could you blink for a yes?”

Stiles didn’t blink. 

_ ‘Come on, tell me your secrets, Isaac...You know you want too. _ ’

The boy looked nervous as he glanced back towards the door a moment, no doubt afraid that another member of the pack was going to stumble upon them, he turned and whispered.

“Come on man, help me out here. I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t tell anybody about Allison”

‘ _ Oh...Oh, you are in deep shit. Are you dating Chris's daughter? Are you nuts? She’s...Well, she’s Allison, but come on her dad is a hunter dude. We all saw how well that ended for Scott and Chris will skin you alive. _ ’

Isaac was peering into Stiles' eyes obviously waiting for some clue. 

Finally, the wolf broke down. “Stiles, please”

Stiles blinked a few times in succession causing Isaac to pull back with a frown. “What does that mean? Stiles just...Just help me out okay. It's not like we're engaged or anything, I’m just not ready to tell the pack and Allison doesn’t want her dad to know either.”

‘ _ Gee I wonder why? Oh wait could it be that its cause your a werewolf and he just so happens to be a werewolf hunter? Or maybe it’s because of the whole she dated Scott, her mom killed herself and the pack’s been on shaky grounds with hunters since then. I’d hate to be you when Derek finds out and Isaac,  and I hate to tell you but, he will find out. _ ’

When he saw the forlorn look on the blonde, Stiles sighed. ‘Fine I’ll keep your dirty little secret. For now.’

Isaac stared at him a moment longer before asking in a tentative tone. “You won’t say anything will you?”

Isaac’s face perked up and he smiled when stiles blinked back at him. “So you’ll keep quiet?”

Stiles blinked once more. ‘ _ You’re not funny you know that right? Keep quiet, ha. I guess it’s escaped your notice, but that’s all I am lately _ .’

Isaac sat back in obvious relief. “Thank you.”

‘ _ Yeah yeah, I’d be more worried about Erica if I were you. No strike that, I’d be worried about all of them. Scott, Derek, oh and can't forget Chris. _ ’

Isaac glanced back towards the door before mumbling to Stiles. “I really hope Erica keeps her word.”

‘ _ Yeah, I feel for you man. On the plus side if she does tell someone it’s more than likely going to be Boyd and if she tells Boyd its unlikely he’ll say anything. So you’ve got that going for you. _ ’

Isaac looked back towards Stiles and smirked. “I know you probably think I’m stupid.”

‘ _ Its crossed my mind. _ ’

“But she’s great man, like really great.”

‘ _ You love-struck fool, you sound just like Scott did when they started dating. Everyone is going to flip their shit when they find out...I hope she’s worth it man because I don’t think everyone is going to be as forgiving as I am _ .’

Isaac smirked a moment before seemingly pulling himself from his daydreaming. He coughed a bit before muttering. “Sorry...Anyways, thanks man.”

_ ‘Yeah, yeah I’m a saint.’ _

When Isaac glanced back towards the hallway, Stiles figured someone was actually coming. He wasn’t wrong as a moment later Scott came walking in. Scott smiled at both of them before saying.

“Morning.”

‘ _ morning, so hey did you know that Isaac here has a thing for Allison as in Chris Argents? The very same Allison that you dated and whose relationship exploded... Cool huh? He’s totally going to be on a wanted poster soon right? I mean what better way for the pack to stay under the radar than for one of our pack to be dating a hunter’s daughter. Again. _ ’ Stiles snickered to himself as he glanced between Isaac and Scott. Both of whom had no clue that he’d just ratted out Isaac. It was the small things in life that could bring the greatest joy, or so Stiles was finding. When you had to amuse yourself, you weren’t picky about the entertainment. 

Scott sat on the edge of the bed before speaking again. “So the pack’s going to go for a quick run, Derek thought it would help with all the tension.”

‘ _ Okay, cool. Have fun dude. _ ’

“But we obviously can't leave you alone-”

‘ _ Uh dude, it's not like I’m going anywhere and how in the hell can I possibly hurt myself while paralyzed? Answer me that one Scott. _ ’

“So I called your dad.”

_ ‘I hate you so much right now Scott. So what you get to go on a morning stroll in the woods and I get the awkwardest lecture of the century? _ ’

“He was pretty happy to know he could stop by before his shift starts. I know you're worried about everything, but he’s been missing you. I figured we could just uh wrap you back up and he wouldn’t know the difference.”

‘ _ Seriously? You're going to wrap me up like a mummy just to fool my dad so he can babysit me while you guys go on a run? The level of hate has never been higher Scott. Never. _ ’

Scott gave him an apologetic look when the boy’s scent changed the longer he talked about the teen’s father. Both wolves scrunched up their faces when the boy’s anger became apparent, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was upsetting him.

“Its the best thing we could come up with, I figured you’d want to wait until you could talk to him about all of this.”

‘ _ You think? _ ’

Scott glanced over to Isaac and asked. “Want to help me wrap him back up?”

Isaac glanced towards Stiles before answering Scott. “Sure, I can help.”

‘ _ Yeah remember me? The one who literally can out you to everyone and watch your ass get handed to you? You should fear me, Isaac. Fear.’ _

What proceeded was the worst ten minutes Stiles had endured in a while, Scott narrating while he wrapped non-existant wounds all over Stiles. Isaac helping of course. When they pulled back Isaac was the one to comment.

“Uh, we forgot something.”

“Huh?”

Scott glanced towards Isaac before asking. “What?”

“His chest.”

They looked to Stiles' chest, Stiles even looked down trying to figure out what the teen meant but his vision range wasn’t so good to see whatever it was the blonde was trying to point out.

“It's not bruised anymore.”

‘ _ Well shit. _ ’

“Oh...Yeah. Hmm...Well, I suppose we could cover him with a blanket?”

Isaac shook his head quickly pointing out the flaw in that simple plan. “His dad might move around and if he disturbs it, he’ll notice.” Scott nodded his head as he thought a moment, a second passed before Isaac mumbled. “A shirt would work...If Stiles’ covered naturally, his dad won't look, right? He’ll just assume Stiles was cold and leave it alone.”

Scott beamed at the werewolf. “Great! Yeah, that’ll work. Uh...Shit, who’s going to ask Derek for a shirt?”

Isaac glanced towards Stiles before he shook his head.

‘ _ Hah some bravery you have if you can't face Derek over a shirt how will you face him about Allison? Better yet how on earth are you going to face Chris? _ ’

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Scott sighed.

“Tell Erica, she loves to torture him.”

Scott smirked at Isaac as he got up to leave. “That’s pretty low.”

Isaac shrugged his shoulders before commenting. “Derek was the one who was trying to break us all apart...A little payback isn’t too mean.”

Scott smirked as he walked out of the room, once he was gone Isaac turned towards Stiles.

“Sorry...Derek is...Not someone I want to cross right now.”

‘ _ You’re a moron if you think being on his good side now will matter in the end, he and Chris won’t be feeling generous when they figure this out dude. _ ’

  
  


*******************************

 

Scott walked up to Erica and Boyd as they stood in the kitchen he glanced around looking for Derek.

“What are you looking for?” Erica chuckled when the Alpha appeared to be hesitant in whatever it was he’d come into the room for.

“Derek?”

Raising a brow Boyd pointed towards the upstairs den, Derek’s bedroom. 

Scott nodded his head before looking at Erica. “Got a mission for you.”

She smirked when the Alpha all but whispered, she loved the sound of that. “Oh?”

Nodding his head Scott filled the Beta in. “We’re all going for a run this morning, Derek’s idea. I called Stiles’ dad to come to watch him for us, to give them some time before well you know.” Scott shook his head when he got off track. “Anyways, we obviously can't let his dad know that Stiles is nearly healed. So we wrapped him back up, there’s just one problem though, his chest.”

She tilted her head in confusion before Boyd spoke up. “He’s not bruised anymore.”

Erica’s eyes lit up, having a good idea where this particular conversation was headed. “Ah, yeah that’s a problem.” By her tone, it was easy to see she was really ‘upset’.  

Scott nodded his head before pointing towards Derek’s bedroom. “His shoulders’ good enough to where we could move it some, we can put him in a shirt and his dad won't look.”

The Beta smirked devilishly, making sure that Scott had to admit to what he wanted her to do. “So you want me to go raid his clothes for a shirt for Stiles.”

Scott looked pained for having to ask this of the Beta, but he nodded his head. He sent a furtive glance back up towards Derek’s den, glancing back to Erica he shrugged.  “Yeah. So uh have fun?”

She snorted at him before setting down her coffee cup, both Scott and Boyd watched her saunter towards the stairs leading towards the man’s bedroom.

“She’s not going to knock is she?”

“No.”

Scott muttered. “I swear that girl has no inhibitions when it comes to making us look like idiots.”

“Nope.”

Glancing to Boyd, Scott smirked. “You love her don’t you?”

“Yep.”

The two teens looked to each other and smirked, they both snorted when they heard Derek shout at Erica.

“Well, one way or another she better get a shirt, I don’t care if its the one he’s wearing or not.”

Boyd snorted before saying. “She’ll get something.”

Scott shook his head as they listened to the werewolves upstairs yell at each other, Derek clearly of the mind that she had no business being upstairs and what was she doing looking through his clothes again. Erica chiming in that he had no right to complain having a beautiful girl in his bedroom, Boyd was chuckling as he listened to his girlfriend bicker with the Alpha. 

Scott was shaking his head. “She’s got balls man.”

“Yeah, she does.” Boyd replied coolly. 

 

**********************************

 

Derek had been putting on a pair of socks when he heard someone coming up the stairs. Sighing at his den once more being intruded upon he glanced over only to glare as Erica ignored him in favor of going towards his dresser. The Alpha raised a brow and then scowled as he barked out. “What are you doing?”

The werewolf made a hm sound as she continued to rifle through his clothes, growling Derek yelled.

“Erica!” Even as he got to his feet to stop her.

She sighed before glancing over her shoulder at him. “What’s it look like I’m doing?”

“Invading my room without permission and going through my clothes.” The Alpha growled.

Erica rolled her eyes before returning to her task. Derek stalked over towards her and grasped her arm, pulling her back she glared back at him just as fiercely as the Alpha was glaring at her.

“Are you really so distraught to have a beautiful girl in your room going through your clothes?”

Derek snorted at her before pushing her towards the stairs. “You’re not my type.”

She chuckled before saying. “If you want to get into that we can, but I think just giving me a shirt would be better for both of us.”

The Alpha’s eyes flared at her insinuating comment, a deep growl forming in his throat upon his Beta bringing up his past.

Erica quickly glanced away to show her submission, but she spoke in a biting tone. “You know, there are worse things I could be doing.”

“Like?” He challenged.

She glanced back at him and smirked. “You don’t want to know, now give me a shirt.”

Giving a disgruntled sigh Derek asked. “Why?”

Sighing the Beta replied in a bored tone. “Why did I need your pants, Derek?”

Derek frowned at the girl’s question before he clued in, muttering the Alpha stated. “Because Stiles needed them.” She stared at him as if he was dumb, Derek just glared back at her having already discovered her point. “Why does he need a shirt? Is he cold?”

She shook her head and approached the Alpha now that things seemed to be calming down. “His dad’s coming to watch him while we run and Stiles doesn’t have any bruises on his chest anymore. His dad would notice that.”

Nodding his head the Alpha turned and a moment later tossed a shirt at the girl, Erica glanced down at it before raising a brow at the man. “Really?”

Scowling Derek looked to the shirt he’d tossed her and then back at the teen. “What? What’s wrong with it?”

She smirked before saying. “Nothing...Nevermind.”

She twisted about and traipsed down the stairs leaving a very confused Derek behind. Shaking his head the Alpha made his way down the stairs after the girl. He’d never understand woman besides his mother and sisters they all seemed insane, a theory proven by his ex’s. When he got to the bottom of the stairs and entered the main loft space he saw Boyd and Scott sitting, waiting for the rest of them no doubt.

Derek scowled at Scott. “You send her up?” 

Scott smirked before saying. “Hey, not my place to ransack another guys dresser.”

Derek snorted before glancing down the hall. “She helping Stiles put it on?”

“And Isaac, we’re just waiting for the sheriff and we’ll be good to go”

Derek nodded his head before turning to look at Boyd. “Your girlfriend better stop going through my clothes, or entering my room for that matter.”

The Beta smirked before saying in his usual quiet tone. “If you can't stop her, I won't be able too.”

Scott chuckled at that, the Beta had a point. If an Alpha couldn’t wrangle the girl then Boyd didn’t have much hope of it either. Scowling at the two men, Derek turned and headed towards the door as he heard the police cruiser coming to a stop outside. Derek opened the door and nodded to the sheriff as he got out of the cruiser, the man smiled and waved as he shut the car door and walked over.

“Derek.”

“Sir.”

The sheriff smirked at him before asking. “How is Stiles?”

“He’s better, he’s able to move his eyes again.”

The sheriff got a slightly saddened look on his face as he was once more reminded of what had befallen his son before he nodded. Derek didn’t bother to try and console the man, there wasn’t anything he could say to make this better. So instead he led the man inside and told him.

“We're just waiting for Erica and Isaac, they’re taking care of Stiles. His shoulder was able to be unbound a bit so they’re helping him into a shirt so he won't be cold.”

The sheriff nodded his head. “That’s good...Kid always had a hard time staying warm.”

Scott called out to the man. “Don’t worry with all of us, he’s been fine. We run hotter than humans so were like a built-in heating pad.”

The sheriff smirked at Scott before shaking his head. “I didn’t need to know that Scott, nor do I want to think about what that all means in relation to my son.”

The teen smirked anyways, Derek glanced over when Erica came out a triumphant look on her face. She greeted the sheriff before saying. “He’s all ready for you.”

The sheriff nodded his head before walking down the hallway, Erica shot a look to the rest of them before saying.

“It's a good thing we went with a shirt.” They all raised a brow at that, prompting the girl to continue. “His shoulder isn’t nearly as swollen or bruised as before, without the shirt it’d be obvious. We made a makeshift sling for him, just for looks.”

The others nodded their heads at that and a moment later Isaac came walking out, he smirked at them all before saying. “They’re settled in, we can go.”

The pack nodded and headed for the door, Scott glanced down the hallway one last time before following after the rest of them. Scott inwardly hoped that the visit between father and son would go well, he had a feeling that Stiles would need this time with his dad before they told the sheriff what was really going on.

 


	12. Emoting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles' father pays him a visit while the pack goes on a run to relieve stress, some of the Bastili venom appears to be wearing off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's this week's chapter, just a heads up that I should be posting like usual this week, but the following week I might not feel up to it as I'm having a small surgery earlier that week. Editing and posting might be the last thing on my mind lol. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter, please leave a comment if you do XD. I love hearing from you guys.

Stiles hated it when he was right, well okay he didn’t. Stiles loved being right, but he hated it when he was right about something bad. Granted his father visiting wasn’t all bad, but seeing his old man with that pained look on his face and being unable to do anything about it tore at him. Stiles wanted nothing more than to reach out and hug his father, to let him know that he was okay. He wasn’t, but his dad wouldn’t be able to tell he was lying. Instead, Stiles was forced to lie in the bed staring at his father as the man tried desperately not to get worked up at the sight of his son.  His dad was trying to be strong, Stiles could see that, but knowing that he couldn’t do anything to make his father feel better just made him want to cry. Stiles figured that wouldn’t help things, so he did his best to calm himself. Instead, he stared at his father and listened to the man as he talked.

“I’m glad I got to stop by before my shift, been worried sick about you kid and I know your safe, nothings going to happen to you hear that’s for sure.”

‘ _ Not with a pack of werewolves sleeping in my bed...Wow, that sounds so weird to say. _ ’ Stiles chuckled to himself despite his father being unable to hear his little joke. 

The sheriff sighed as he looked down to his feet as he muttered. “When I realized you hadn’t come home...I didn’t really worry all that much, I mean I was worried, but I figured you guys were up to trouble like usual.” Noah had an almost amused grin to his face as if he was far too used to such things to truly be angry at the teens. “When Scott told me you had left before him...Stiles, I have never been so scared in my life than when I realized you were missing and Scott and the others didn’t know where you were. I mean if they didn’t know, how was I supposed to find you?” The sheriff looked back up to his son, catching the boys eyes as his shown misty as he made his declaration.

‘ _ You would have found me, dad, I know you. If the pack didn’t exist if it was just us...You’d never stop looking for me and I know that. This isn’t your fault. _ ’

“When I saw them go running into those woods after the trail of blood...God the sight of your blood nearly did me in kid. When I saw them follow it, I just wondered if maybe you wouldn’t be coming back...We found your phone and I knew, I just knew. You wouldn’t leave like that, injured or not...You wouldn’t go into the woods, not alone.”

‘ _ No, I wouldn’t have...Those bastards dragged me the whole way there dad. I wouldn’t have done this to you, made you worry. I’m sorry _ .’

The sheriff shook his head as he gave a bitter laugh. “When I saw Derek carrying you I-god I nearly lost it. When he said you were okay, I was just so damned relieved I could have kissed him.”

‘ _ That would not have gone over well. _ ’

“I was scared, of course, you weren’t moving and despite him saying you were just drugged, my mind just kept thinking the worst. I hate to say it, but if Chris hadn’t of shown up when he did I might have killed that man.”

‘ _ Scott wouldn’t have let you do that dad, none of them would have. They understood, they understand why you felt like that. No one would have blamed you if you had killed the bastard, I doubt he’s going to like what the other hunters are planning to do with him...I really should ask Chris about that.’ _

Stiles' eyes flittered down to his leg to see his fathers hand laying there. A moment later his eyes returned to his fathers face seeing the man silently crying.

“I love you so damned much Stiles...I- know you can't promise me that shit like this isn’t going to happen again. I know that. I know you love Scott and the others too much to just stop. As much as I’d love to just lock you up and stop all this supernatural stuff, I cant. And its wrong of me to ask you to stop, I know that...But please, please son try to be careful. If something...If something worse happened...If you didn’t come back.”

The man choked a moment before he managed to continue. “I don’t think I could keep on living son. Not without you, losing your mother was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I had you, I had you and if I lost you...What would I have?”

‘ _ Dad’ _ Stiles didn’t even bother feeling embarrassed when he realized he was crying right alongside his father. Instead, he tried his best to show as much emotion as he could through his eyes alone. Stiles knew it wasn’t nearly enough, would never convey how he felt. 

The sheriff wiped his eyes clean before clearing his throat, he smirked and nodded to his son before he reached forward and with callused hands wiped Stiles face clean. “There ya go...Can't have Scott teasing ya now.”

‘ _ Hate to tell ya this, but they’ll be able to smell the tears dad. I don’t care though. _ ’

The sheriff sat back once more once he had cleared his sons face away of the tears, he smiled gently to his son before patting his leg. “I hope you snap out of this soon, I’m not used to seeing you hold so still.”

‘ _ Ha that makes two of us. _ ’

“I know they’re taking good care of you, Melissa was calling me and letting me know how they had stepped up to care for you. You have some amazing friends Stiles, and not just because of them being werewolves.” Noah smirked sardonically. 

_ ‘I know, they’re pretty amazing huh?’ _

 

***************************

 

The pack came to stop, panting with broad smiles on their faces as they looked at each other, the run had been just what they needed. One by one they shifted out of their wolf forms, though their breaths were still accelerated they were steadily calming the longer they stood together.

“Think we should head back now?” Scott questioned.

Derek nodded his head as he looked up at the sun. “Yeah, the sheriff will need to get into town soon.”

The others nodded and after a few moments more they shifted again and took off back towards the loft. Scott kept pace with Derek while the Beta’s ran on either side of them. Sometimes darting ahead or falling behind as they jumped over obstacles and ran around things. It seemed to the two Alpha’s that the Beta’s were playing a game of tag as they ran around each other. They both smirked, it was nice to be able to relax a bit.

It couldn’t last forever, of course, they needed to get ready to help Stiles with his shift and figure out how they were going to explain it to Stiles’s father. The run was something to help the pack come together, especially after such a trying experience. The bond the pack shared would only strengthen the longer they spent together, the instinct to protect one another growing the longer it was nurtured. Soon the pack would have to face the task of introducing a new member. Stiles may have always been pack, but he was human. With his transformation into a Bastili, they would have to find their places once more. So far it hadn’t unsettled anyone, but they couldn’t count on that remaining true in the future.

Their run slowed the closer they got to the loft, almost as if they were trying to draw it out. Not because they didn’t want to see Stiles, but because they knew that they would be spending the majority of their time indoors until the boy was healed. Their wolves growing restless under their skins. Derek had already suggested that they break into groups and run while Stiles was recovering, now that they knew what was going to be happening soon. The exercise would help to keep all of them focused and grounded to what they needed to do as a pack as a whole. Right now they needed to protect their wounded pack mate and help ground him as they prepared for his first shift. They weren’t immune to stress, so the   would help give them a break from what they were being forced to deal with. Both Derek and Scott hoped that once Stiles first shift happened things could return to some semblance of normal, as much normal as the pack ever got that is. 

The pack came to a slow jog as the entered the space where they parked the cars in front of the loft. They all panted a moment before sighing. The long run had helped work out some of the tension they had all been feeling, there were grins on everybody's faces as they made their way to the door of the loft. Boyd swung the door to the loft open and immediately the smiles that had been glowing across their faces fell. The scent of tears, of pain and sorrow, saturated the air. They glanced to one another nervously, unsure what it all meant and what they should do. 

Scott cleared his throat before saying. “I’ll go check on them...You guys stay out here a minute.”

The pack nodded and watched the Alpha make the slow trek down the hallway.

“Come on, we need to rehydrate. Scott can handle that.”

The Beta’s followed after Derek and were soon standing around the kitchen’s island sipping from water bottles, the Alpha was leaning against a kitchen counter a slight frown to his face. The wolves were all alert, listening for any signs of distress from the room down the hall. They could hear Scott speaking with the sheriff and the man talking back. The voices were calm and the conversation didn’t appear to hold any threat to either party. 

“Relax.” The Beta’s shifted to look at Derek, the Alpha set his bottle of water down before saying. “We knew his dad would take this hard, seeing Stiles like that isn’t easy for him. It wasn’t for us either, remember he doesn’t know what we know. He’s...Adapting to Stiles’ situation as he sees it now.”

The Beta’s nodded their heads before Isaac muttered. “He’s going to be mad when he learns we lied to him.”

Derek shook his head. “He might be, but he’s also going to understand that Stiles would have wanted to tell him himself.”

Isaac nodded his head. The group twisted about to see Scott and the sheriff coming out of the room, the man’s eyes were a little red, but otherwise, a person wouldn’t know the man had been crying. The wolves, however, could smell it. The saltiness of the man’s tears and the wafting smell of his sadness clung to him.

“I have to get to the station.”

They nodded to him, all of them had already known that but figured the man just needed some way to start talking again.

“We’ll keep an eye on Stiles sir.”

The sheriff gave a small smile to Scott before nodding towards the rest of them. Noah turned and headed for the door, Scott trailing after him to see him out. 

Once the man was gone and the door shut did Scott sigh and mutter. “Can you guys go stay with Stiles a moment, I want to talk to Derek.”

The Beta’s glanced between the two Alpha’s before Erica nodded and pulled the two boys along with her, once they were down the hallway Derek spoke. “They can still hear us.”

“I know...But at least this way we have the illusion of speaking in privacy right?”

The older Alpha gave the teen a smirk. “Alright.”

Scott gave a wane smirk of his own as he approached the island and leaned against it. Taking a deep breath the Alpha said. “The sheriff was asking about moving Stiles to the hospital...He’s nervous about him going so long without food. Mom’s said the same thing and I know we promised him the rest of today, but they’ve got a point.”

Derek tilted his head before stating. “You want to move him now?”

Scott shrugged before telling the man. “I'm-I'm nervous, what if something goes wrong with his ‘bite’ or whatever...What if he doesn’t have enough strength for it? Stiles hasn’t been eating Derek, weaker bodies don’t...They don’t make it. We both know that. We know he’s going to turn, that his sparks doing this, but what if it needs that energy to do it right?”

Derek frowned a moment as he mulled over the teen's speculation on Stiles’ transformation, this had never happened before and the lack of information they had on it was agitating him. Unable to lie to his fellow Alpha, Derek muttered. “I don’t know how that would work.”

Scott nodded his head. “I know, none of us do. Not even Deaton would know, right? I told the sheriff that we were going to be moving him by tomorrow and he...He’s allowing it, but he wasn’t happy we were waiting. He’s worried that Stiles’ suffering.”

Derek shook his head before mentioning off handily. “He hasn’t smelled like that.”

“Huh?”

Giving the younger wolf a look Derek spoke. “If Stiles was starving he would smell different...Sick. He doesn’t.”

“Okay...So he’s what just not hungry? That doesn’t make sense dude, Stiles hasn’t eaten in almost four days.”

Derek scowled at the Alpha while retorting. “I know how long its been Scott. That doesn’t change the fact that Stiles doesn’t smell like he’s suffering from starvation. I’m sure he’s hungry by now, but his scent isn’t saying that.”

Scott frowned before questioning. “Why isn’t his scent telling us that he’s hungry then? Could it because of the venom?”

Derek shrugged before stating. “Possibly, it slowed down the rest of his bodies normal functions to begin with...It makes sense that it might have done the same to his metabolism.”

Giving a big sigh, Scott glanced down towards Stiles room. “Either way, he gets moved tomorrow...His dad won't wait any longer.”

Derek nodded, mostly to himself as Scott wasn’t paying any attention to him. “Go sit with him...We’ll deal with moving him later.”

Scott nodded his head as he pushed himself away from the island and headed down the hallway. Derek watched him go before he moved out of the kitchen and headed up to his bedroom. He snagged up the book Chris had left them before going up the stairs, he had some reading to do.

 

**************************** 

 

Scott laughed with the others, Isaac had decided that they had all had enough of the mopy atmosphere and had gone to snatch up one of the spare laptops they had lying about for research. He’d quickly loaded up Netflix and after setting the device on the dresser across from the bed so Stiles could watch without craning his eyes about. The group settled in. The show they were watching was a comedy, something Isaac felt appropriate given all they’d been through. 

The animated characters were fighting among each other much to the amusement of the pack. They were all relieved when they smelled Stiles own amusement, the contentment back with   as they all lounged together. No one commented on it, figuring that nothing needed to be said. They all understood how nice it was to be able to relax with each other despite the boy still being paralyzed. 

It wasn’t until seven episodes in that Scott glanced to see what Stiles thought of the show only to find the boy’s eyes closed. He waited a moment to see if he was just taking a break, but Stiles’s eyes didn’t open. Leaning closer he sniffed the boy and listened carefully to his heartbeat, sure enough, he was sleeping. Scott pulled back and snorted before telling the others.

“Lower the volume, he’s sleeping.”

They turned to glance at Stiles before Isaac fumbled off of the bed to go turn the volume down. He rejoined them and after they all took a turn assuring themselves of the boys status returned to the show. Scott smirked at Stiles’ sleeping form before turning back to enjoy the show.

 

***********

 

Stiles woke slowly, he wasn’t overly surprised to find himself warm. Comfortable. He smirked to himself, no doubt at least one of the pack was laying near him, that could be the only reason for the radiating warmth he felt around him. Stiles found it amusing that they crowded in on him, he knew it was probably just instinct, but it was kinda nice all the same. Sighing a little Stiles slowly opened his eyes, he knew it wasn’t fair to them for him to fake sleeping. Blinking a couple of times he smirked to himself once more as he took in the sight of all of them asleep.

‘ _ Guess everyone needed a nap. _ ’

Isaac was sprawled on his left, his usual spot nowadays, Scott on his right and Erica and Boyd at his feet. Though the latter was laying at an odd angle that couldn’t have possibly been comfortable.

‘ _ You guys are lucky you heal so fast, otherwise, you’d get a kink in your backs that’d last for days _ .’

It was just after he had thought this that he let out a yawn, flexing his jaw a moment before he froze.

‘ _ Holy shit! _ ’

Stiles focused himself, trying desperately not to get too excited, once he was calm enough he tried to move his jaw again. It shifted just as he intended it too. His grin was sure to be the likes of no other. Stiles opened his mouth before closing it again, testing to see if there were any limitations. Frowning a moment his eyes widened and he smiled once more, he was frowning. Actually frowning, not the tedious mental frowning he’d been forced to do for the past few days. Unable to contain himself Stiles shouted. “I CAN EMOTE AGAIN!”

The wolves around him jolted to life, looking for some threat before they all stilled and as a collective force turned to look at Stiles. The boy was smiling at them. Before any of them could ask if they had heard it too, the boy said in a cocky tone.

“You missed my sexy voice didn’t you?”

The wolves cried out in excitement, Stiles laughed as he found himself hugged by more than one body at once. He laughed with them as they took in the fact that he could speak when they finally pulled away to give him room Isaac cried out.

“God its good to hear you man.”

“You have no idea how much I agree with you there.”

They laughed at the boy's statement before Isaac questioned. “Can you move your head or anything else?”

Stiles frowned a moment before sighing. “Nope...Not a thing.”

Isaac grinned at him, but Scott told the paralyzed boy. “Hey, it's a start man...Hey swallow for me”

Stiles glanced to his friend before saying in a dry tone. .“That is the weirdest request you have ever asked of me Scott Mccall.”

The others laughed before Erica patted his leg. “He wants to see if you can eat Stiles,”

“Oh..Okay well when you put it that way.” The teen gathered some saliva in his mouth before he tried to swallow, the wolves watched him carefully before glancing to his eyes after a moment. “Seems fine to me.”

They all sighed in relief.

“Name it and it's yours.” Scott told him with a grin.

Stiles expression matched the werewolves grin. “I’d say curly fries, but to tell you the truth I want actual food.”

The others laughed before Isaac patted his arm. “We can get you curly fries later, how about something a bit more filling?”

“Hey, curly fries are filling. Ask Scott, he watched me eat three baskets of em before.”

Isaac snorted before retorting. “I don’t need to ask him to figure out that you’ve done that Stiles. That sounds like something you would do.”

Stiles laughed before saying. “He turned green just so you know.”

“Hey!”

Stiles gave a bark of a laugh at his friend's offended look. “What you did.”

“Anything in particular you want?” Erica broke up the fighting.

“Uh no, just food...Any food like structure or substance.”

Rolling his eyes Scott climbed off the bed and told his friend as he headed for the door. “Alright, I’ll go find some can’s of spinach.”

“Ha ha ha you're hilarious.” they heard Scott laugh as he walked away. Stiles glanced to the others before stating. “You have no idea how annoying it is to be awake and unable to talk, the running commentary in my head was the only thing keeping me sane guys.”

Erica smirked. “I’m sure it was.”

The boy stuck out his tongue at the girl before saying proudly. “Hey, I can stick my tongue out.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “  sad that, that’s considered an accomplishment to us.”

Stiles chuckled a moment before saying. “I know right?

It was the stoic voice of Boyd who spoke up next, telling Stiles. “It is good to hear your voice again.”

Stiles smirked back at the taller teen. “Yeah, gotta say after the last few days I was beginning to feel a little put out. Scott telling you all of my embarrassing childhood memories was not a high point for me.”

The others smirked before Erica told him slyly.  “Well, you can get even now.”

Stiles chuckled. “Yeah I can cant I? Hmm...What to use, what to use.” If Stiles had been able to he knew he’d be tapping his chin, as it was he couldn’t do that, so he settled with humming.

“Did he ever break anything doing something stupid?” Isaac asked eagerly. 

Stiles sighed before saying. “No, the bastard only ever broke his leg and that wasn’t even his own fault.”

Isaac chuckled at the very put out expression on the teen’s face.

“So what has he done that’s stupid?” Erica questioned in a curious tone. 

Stiles thought a moment until his face lit up and he smirked. “Okay, so when we were younger his mom was always yelling at him not to forget his inhaler right?” The others nodded. “Right, so naturally Scott would forget it everywhere. Luckily he never had a bad episode or anything, but still, Melissa was not happy. One day we were screwing around. Had some silly string and being the curious kids we were, we decided to try and open a can and see what it was like inside.”

“Oh, that’s not good.” Isaac muttered. 

Stiles snorted before chastising the boy. “My story hush.” The others chuckled before letting Stiles continue. “So anyway, were both prying away at the seals on the cans, Scott finally managed to get a small hole in his and it was whistling. He sniffed it as he was curious as to what silly string smelled like for some reason. It didn’t smell, but he said the air reminded him of his inhaler.”

“Please do not tell me what I think you're going to tell me.”

Winking at Erica the boy continued. “So what does the idiot do? He tries to inhale some of this misty stuff as if it was his inhaler. Scott depressurized the can and it exploded, he got a mouthful of silly string goo. I was laughing so damn hard I thought I’d need an inhaler.”

The Beta’s burst out laughing as they listened to the boy's story.

“He seriously did that?” Isaac asked disbelievingly.

“You bet he did, he said it tasted horrible.”

“Well, gee I wonder why?” Erica snorted sarcastically.

Stiles smirked at her. “Ah, the good old times...Now let me think there has to be something even better that I can remember about him when we were kids.”

The Beta’s waited patiently and with broad grins on their faces as the paralyzed boy thought to himself.

 

***********

 

Scott was smirking to himself, he couldn’t help it, it was just so nice to hear Stiles’ voice once more. Rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen he was going back and forth about what to feed his friend. Scott knew Stiles wouldn’t like being fed like a baby, but until the boy could move an arm he’d have to deal with it. Sighing as the teen closed another drawer he tilted his head, it struck him. He knew exactly what to feed Stiles, he just needed a little help is all. Glancing behind him towards the spiral staircase that led to Derek’s bedroom, Scott muttered to himself. “No Erica to save you now.”

The Alpha made the short journey to the bottom of the stairs, he stared up the length of them as if waiting for something to jump out and prevent him from ascending them. Nothing happened, before he could lose his nerve Scott forced himself to start climbing them. Inwardly he was praying that Derek wouldn’t be put in a bad mood by his intrusion as he’d really like to have the other man’s help. Once he was at the top of the stairs Scott paused, Derek was reclined on his bed, the older Alpha glanced up from the book Chris had left them.

“Problem?”

Scott shook his head before frowning. “Uh, yes and no?”

Snorting Derek waited for the teen to elaborate, It didn’t take long. Scott glanced downstairs before saying with a smirk. “Stiles can talk.”

Derek sat up in his bed a small tilt to his lips. “Oh?”

Scott turned his attention back to the other Alpha and nodded. “Yeah, he’s back to talking a mile a minute, he seems to be able to swallow good so he’s demanding food. Surprisingly not curly fries.”

Derek snorted at that before commenting. “I would hope not, after four days I would think something more substantial would be better.”

Scott grinned as if the Alpha had just walked into his trap, frowning Derek questioned the boy.

“What?”

“I’m glad you agree.”

Raising a brow now that he sensed that he had fallen for something he wouldn’t agree to otherwise Derek carefully stated. “Alright.”

“So you’ll come downstairs and help me fix that pasta thing you make right?” Derek frowned at Scott for all of a minute, until the teen begged. “Come on Derek, he loves that and right now he’s actually being Stiles...Who knows how long that’s going to last once his oversized brain kicks in and realizes he can talk about the whole Bastili thing.”

Derek sighed before nodding his head, Scott had a point. They had no idea when Stiles might bring up that particular subject now that he could talk about it. “Alright alright...Let's go.”

Scott crowed out in victory, turning and heading back downstairs, shaking his head Derek got out of his bed and tucked the book under his arm as he made his way downstairs. Derek had to stop a few feet back from the counter, taking in all the stuff that Scott had no doubt been responsible for strewing across the counter. He glanced towards the teen and huffed, shaking his head at the other Alpha’s attempt to ‘help’. He set the precious book well out of the danger area that was sure to happen with Scott helping him cook and said dryly. “Scott we do not need sugar for pasta.”

The boy glanced down to the sugar before shrugging. “I’m not much of a cook.”

Snorting at the boy stating the obvious, Derek shoved the jar holding his sugar into the teen’s hands and pointed for him to put it back. The Alpha did as told and returned a moment later eager to get another task.

“Boil some water.”

Scott nodded his head and ran around to get the largest pot they had filled with water, Derek smirked as he watched Scott race around like a puppy. Shaking his head the Alpha made sure he had everything for the alfredo sauce before digging out another pot to start on it. The pair stood side by side, both waiting for their pots to heat up.

“He’s going to love this...He likes your cooking.”

“Considering he lives off of curly fries, that is not overly shocking.”

Scott snorted before saying. “He doesn’t live off of them...He just inhales them like their air.”

Derek smirked at the Alpha beside him. “Right, cause there's a distinct difference between the two.”

“Well, he’d say there was.”

“He’s not here.”

“Good point.”

Nodding his head Derek cut some butter and placed a cube into the heated pan. “So did he ask for this?”

“Hmm. Oh no, his exact words were along the lines of some form of substances that was considered actual food. “

Shaking his head Derek stirred in some flour as he told the boy. “That could mean a lot of things.”

“I know, I threatened to bring him a can of spinach.”

Snorting Derek told the Alpha. “I don’t have any.”

“He doesn’t know that.”

Glancing over to Scott, Derek smirked. “Touche”

Scott grinned as he began placing the pasta into the boiling water. “Thanks.”

Derek made a hm sound and the pair fell into a rhythm together, passing ingredients and talking in small bouts. It wasn’t until they were nearly done with the food that Scott asked.

“So you're reading the book?”

Derek nodded his head. “Yeah, it's interesting.”

“Anything we should know?”

Derek smirked as he poured the sauce over the pasta. “Don’t piss off a Bastili.”

Scott glared at Derek for the lack of information. “Ha ha.”

Smirking Derek put the empty pot away and began stirring to mix in the sauce. “Not much more than what Chris or Deaton didn’t already say, it mentions some things hunters have used to kill them, but doesn’t have a lot on the species in general.”

Scott sighed as he nibbled on a piece of garlic bread. “Well, I guess if we know what to avoid, we’ll be able to keep him healthy right?”

Derek nodded, it was all they had to go on at the moment. “Mountain ash will work on him the same as us, wolfsbane won't touch him though, not surprising given he’s not a wolf.”

“Well, at least we won't have to worry about that one.”

Derek tilted his head before saying. “True, if all of the pack were able to be taken down with the same substance we would be at a disadvantage.”

“Yep, so what can take down a Bastili?”

Derek finished what he was doing before he turned to face Scott and with a frown said. “Silver, not that it’s surprising...Though it mentioned a plant that comes from Egypt called lychnis. I can only assume based on what was written that it would cause him to react like we do to wolfsbane.”

“Lovely.”

Derek smirked before saying in a neutral tone. “Being supernatural doesn’t mean we don’t have a weakness Scott..”

Scott nodded his head before asking. “What are the chances of that plant being around here?”

Derek shook his head. “It wouldn’t grow here Scott, the only way it would be around was if hunters brought it, they’d have to import it from Egypt and bring it with them on hunts just like wolfsbane. With as rare as he’s supposed to be, I’m going to hope that they might not have it lying around.”

The boy nodded before stating. “They’ll have plenty of silver though.”

“I’m sure they will.”

The pair wrapped up the lunch they had made and after loading up two trays, one with the food and one with dishes. The pair headed towards the bedroom to show off the proverbial feast.

 

*********

 

Stiles glanced around to all of them when he noticed them perking up. “What?”

Erica spared him a glance as she stared at the door. “Foods coming.”

“Oh thank god.”

The girl smirked along with the rest of them and a moment later both Scott and Derek were coming into the room, each holding a tray. Erica rose effortlessly and helped them place everything out on the dresser. Once things were ready did Scott ask Stiles.

“You want some bread with your pasta?”

“You made pasta?”

Scott snorted before reminding his friend. “No, dude I can't even make box mac and cheese, I roped Derek into cooking.”

Stiles grinned at the two Alphas before telling Derek. “Thanks for not letting him give me food poisoning on top of the rest of this shit.”

Derek snorted. “No problem.”

“Hey! I wouldn’t have given you food poisoning.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the boy. “Remember the taquitos?”

Scott paused a moment before he shook his head. “Don’t remind me.”

“Mmhmm, my point exactly.”

The others were grinning as they watched the two go back and forth, Scott finally finished filling a plate for the boy and retook his previous place by his side. 

Stiles glanced at the food before saying. “It's only because I know this is worth it that I’m going to not bitch about the fact that you're going to be feeding me.” Scott smirked as he scooped some pasta onto a fork. As he raised it Stiles asked. “Please don’t stab me in the face dude.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “Open your mouth Stiles.”

“When is it not open?”

Erica chimed in, Stiles cried out only to make an mmph sound when Scott used the distraction to fork in the food into the boy's open mouth. 

Stiles chewed before swallowing. “Yeah, I was right...Food is amazing.”

The pack snorted at him, quick to delve into their own meals as Scott would feed Stiles a bite before eating off of his own plate. The sounds of silverware scraping on porcelain filled the room as the pack diverted the majority of their attention to their meals.  

This continued for a while before Stiles chimed in. “Hey, Derek?” The Alpha raised his head and silently waited for the boy to speak again. “How’d you learn to cook like this?”

The Alpha shook his head before saying. “Unlike Scott, I wanted to know how to cook. Besides, I was normally in charge of my little sister, she was a picky eater so I had to learn. I never really thought it would come in handy all that much, but after the fire.”

He let it hang and the pack understood. After the fire, he had to take care of himself, Peter wasn’t the nurturing kind. Stiles waited only a moment before telling the older werewolf.

“Well, I’m glad you can cook. The rest of these lightweights don’t know how to boil water.”

Derek smirked before Scott yelled out. “I do too. I boiled the water for the pasta.”

Stiles glanced to his friend, a sly smirk to his face. “Ah, did Derek let you near the stove, you’re such a big boy now.”

The others burst out laughing as Scott glared at his friend, instead of commenting he shoved another mouth full of pasta into Stiles' mouth. The boy chewed but was smiling while he did so. Once he had swallowed did the teen reveal. “I told them about the silly string inhaler.”

Scott’s mouth fell open as the Beta’s chuckled, Derek raised a brow at the strange comment.

“Why would you tell them that!”

Stiles gave Scott a steely glare. “I don’t know...Maybe cause you told them all about me breaking my arm and my toes.”

Scott snorted. “But those were funny.”

Stiles glared at his friend. “Really? Really Scott? You don’t think you inhaling silly string goo because your a moron isn’t funny?”

Scott glared back at his friend, Erica coughed breaking the two up as they glanced to her. The Beta smirked before suggesting. “We could always have a competition, see who has the worst story.”

Stiles grinned at the idea, but a moment later his mouth was covered by Scott’s hand.

“No.”

The Alpha said as he glared at Stiles. Stiles gave him a putout look, but the others were too busy laughing to help the paralyzed boy when he felt it was safe enough Scott lowered his hand. “No more stories.”

Stiles smirked. “Hate to break it to you Scott, but I know lots of things about you...I mean we grew up together. The stories I could tell...”

Scott glared before countering. “You want me to start telling them about all the shit I’ve seen? My mom could probably pull your records for me.”

Stiles blanched at that. “You suck.”

Scott grinned at his friend in his triumph, Isaac was the one to ask. “Did you really get hurt so often as a kid?”

Stiles’s eyes glanced his way before the boy sighed. “Well...Not so much hurt...As caught doing things I shouldn’t have been doing that might have resulted in damage to my person. Most of the time they had me checked out for no reason.”

Scott snorted at that. “Seriously? You once stole your dad’s jail key and decided to go interrogate the prisoners. Accidentally letting out a car thief who then stole a cop car and made a break for it.”

The others stared in awe at what they were hearing, Stiles groaned before saying. “Come on, that was like totally not my fault man.”

Scott rolled his eyes before stating. “You’re lucky all he did was lock you in that closet, he could have done anything to you man.”

Stiles sighed. “Yeah, I know, got the lecture from my dad.”

“I would hope so.” Erica said disapprovingly. 

Stiles grimaced at the girl's curt tone. “It wasn’t as bad as he’s making it sound I promise.”

The Beta didn’t look convinced, turning his attention back to Scott the boy glared a moment.

“Fine you wanna play it that way, how about the time you decided it would be great fun to sneak into the hospital, steal your mom's Id card when she was too busy to notice and go exploring in the morgue. Huh? Do you remember that one Scott? How you got locked down there for over two hours before someone found you and the whole time you were stuck in there you did what? Oh, I remember you tied all the dead bodies to their gurneys because you thought they were going to turn into zombies after one of them jerked.”

Scott was glaring until Isaac cried out. “It moved!”

Scott sighed as he heard Stiles explain. “It's a normal occurrence Isaac, when the brain dies it sends last minute signals to the limbs. They can jerk around, their eyes can open, stuff like that...Scott here happened to see one of them move their arm and was so he freaked out that he lashed them all to the gurneys. His mom was not amused.”

When the ruckus laughter of the pack died down, Derek commented. “How is it you two lived long enough to meet me?”

Stiles glanced to the Alpha before saying. “Were just awesome.”

The man snorted before stating. “Lucky is more like it.”

Stile made a noncommittal noise before he replied. “Yeah I guess so, granted the whole thing with Peter wasn’t so much lucky as...I don’t know what that was to be honest...Fucked up?”

Scott smirked at his friend. “Peter was fucked up Stiles, you and me were just being teenagers.”

“Trespassing teenagers.” Derek reminded them. 

The Beta’s smirked at the two as they looked a little chastised at being reminded of what had led them to here. Finally, Stiles piped up. “Fine fine, trespassing teenagers...Doesn’t give someone the right to get bitey.”

“Bitey?” Derek said with a small smirk. 

Stiles replied with. “Well he sure as hell wasn’t giving him a bear hug man,  your uncle was insane.”

Derek raised a brow before stating. “No argument here.”

Stiles smirked before glancing to Scott. “But that’s okay, it worked out pretty well. Well maybe not for Peter, but fuck him. He was biting people so he deserves it...My point was that things worked out for us.”

Scott grinned at his longtime friend. “Yeah, it worked out. It was awkward as hell to begin with though, avoiding my mom and your dad and trying to figure this shit out was not easy.”

Stiles snorted. “Dude I don’t think anyone could blame us for not wanting to go to your mom the nurse, or my dad the sheriff and claim that you were a werewolf. There would have been padded rooms in our future.”

Scott snickered at that. “Well yeah, most likely.”

“You could have just shown them though.” Erica mused aloud. 

Scott nodded to her. “We could have, well I could have, but I didn’t want to freak her out.”

“And now look at her, bandaging werewolves and all other manner of supernatural creatures all while lying to the administration. My dad actually told me not to ask about how many files he had to forge at this point. He seemed very...Perturbed that it didn’t bother him anymore.”

The group chuckled at that, Scott patted Stiles’s knee before getting up to set their plates aside. “Get enough?” Scott asked as he rejoined him on the bed, this time reclining against the headboard.

“yep. And god was it good. Thanks again Derek, I’d offer to hug you, but I can't and I know you’d growl so...Thanks.”

The Alpha rolled his eyes at the teen before pushing off of the wall he had been leaning against. He was halfway to the door before he said. “Someone else can do the dishes, I’m going to go finish my reading. Call if you need me.”

Stiles pouted as the Alpha left, looking to Scott he muttered. “Aw did I scare the Alpha with the threat of a hug?”

Scott snickered before he perked up like the rest of the wolves. They chuckled.

“What?”

Isaac shook his head before telling Stiles. “Derek muttered ‘not on your life’.”

Stiles grinned before calling out. “You love me Derek hale and you know it!”

The other’s eyes widened before they burst out laughing if Derek replied it was lost as the pack were laughing like hyena’s. Erica wiped her eyes as she cleared some tears away. “Oh god Stiles, it is so good to have you back.”

The boy grinned at her, his eyes flitted to Boyd when the large teen got up and jerked his head towards the door. 

Calling out to Isaac. “Come on, dishes won't clean themselves.”

Isaac nodded and got up to help to collect everything, Erica lounged near Stiles’s feet. Obviously not intending to help them, Stiles would have been shaking his head at the werewolf. If he could that is.  Instead, Stiles rolled his eyes at her, Erica smiled back at him as if it was nothing of merit for her to be ignoring the chores. After Boyd and Isaac left, dishes and leftover food in tow. Did the girl say.

“Have to train em young Stiles.”

Stiles laughed at her. “You’re crazy if you think you're going to be able to train Isaac to do your bidding.”

The werewolf smirked before commenting. “Isaac would do anything I asked.”

Scott snorted at her in disbelief as he got up, he patted Stiles’s shoulder. “I’m going to go check on them and see what the plan is for tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Once the Alpha was gone did Stiles give Erica a knowing look. “So what are you going to ask for?”

“Huh?” She questioned, obvious confusion on her face.

Smirking at the wolf Stiles said.“You know, with Isaac. What are you going to ask for?”

She frowned at him, deciding to clue her in as best he could, Stiles made the remark. “I’m surprised Allison hasn’t dropped by when her dad has...You know to check up on all of... Us.”

Erica twisted her head to the side as if calculating what he was really saying.

“She’s   pretty, but you’d have to be suicidal to want to date a hunters daughter right?”

Erica’s face broke out into a wide grin as she scooched closer. “Oh, yeah definitely. Crazy.”

Stiles winked at her. She laughed at him.

“So whatcha gonna ask for?”

The werewolf thought a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “Don’t know, not in a rush to cash in.”

Stiles snorted at her. “Yeah, I guess it's not something that expires...Unless the cat gets out of the bag that is.”

Erica frowned at that. “Good point...Hmm, there’s plenty of things I wouldn’t mind not having to do for a while...But figuring out just the right thing to ask for. That is tricky. What about you, do you have a favor waiting for you?”

Stiles grinned. “Oh yeah, and I’m gonna make it count.”

Erica chuckled at the boy as she patted his leg. “I’m sure you will.”

The Beta sat back and crossed one of her legs over the other. “So how’d you hear?”

“When he confronted you about it, you two woke me up. Of course, I hadn’t actually heard anything...I just lead him to believe I did. He spilled the beans himself while begging for me not to talk.”

She snorted. “Figures.”

Shaking her head a moment the girl stared at Stiles, took in the sight of the human member of their pack. Well, he wouldn’t be human for much longer, but for the moment she still considered him so.

“You’re staring like a creeper.”

Jolted out of her musing she glared at the boy. “I’m not a creeper.”

“That’s why I said ‘like’.”

Rolling her eyes the Beta questioned the teen. “I know Scott wanted to wait a bit, but I’m curious.”

“Oh? About what?”

Biting her lip she glanced over her shoulder to the doorway.

“Anyone there?”

She shook her head, turning back around before she spoke softly. “I-I don’t want to upset you either...The others wouldn’t take that well.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at her. “If this is about the crashing my car into nothing, hunters beating and kidnapping me then torturing me, or the fact that they were using me as bait to lure you guys to your deaths. I think I can handle it. I was kinda there Erica.” Stiles gave the girl a deadpan look, clearly stating for her to move on.

She pursed her lips before replying sourly.  “I know that, but that doesn’t mean we should force you to talk about it.”

Stiles snorted at her. “I’m fine, well I’m not fine-fine, but I’m better than I was. Look it wasn’t a walk in the park, they were douchebags through and through. Not going to apologize about wanting them hurt in various ways.”

Erica smirked back at him. “It's just...Things are changing, have been changing so fast. When we got you back we thought that was the end of it, that things would go back to normal-”

“But they didn’t. Derek and Scott had it out like two Alpha’s in a pissing contest and nobody won, then you guys banded together and Derek was going to be alone cause he was kinda being a dick about me being all human-like.”

Erica smirked at him in obvious amusement as the boy continued.

“Then it turns out that those hunters were a special kind of stupid, not that we didn’t already know that, but still. I’m not going to lie, Erica, this isn’t what I would have chosen for myself. Scott knows that I wasn’t wanting to take the bite, that’s why he stood his ground against Derek. I didn’t agree with anything going on mind you.”

Erica frowned before she interrupted the boy..“What do you mean? You didn’t agree with what?”

Sighing Stiles replied. “With you all banding together with Scott, leaving Derek. You're a pack. Wolves are meant to stay together and I’m just a human...Or I was. You shouldn’t have been fighting over or about me. I shouldn’t have been a variable in the packs dynamic. So yeah I was pissed at you all and scared and really just wondering if you’d all come out of this alright.”

Erica nodded her head to him. Stiles didn’t hesitate to continue.

“And yeah the whole Bastili thing is freaking me out six ways to Sunday...But there’s not really anything I can do about it right?” Stiles stopped long enough to swallow, though Erica could tell it was more to ground himself than to rid his mouth of excess saliva. “I mean I suppose I could go jump off a cliff or something...But that would hurt all of you and my dad, besides it's not like this is a curse. I’ve seen you guys, seen how free you are because your werewolves. It's just going to take some getting used too is all.”

Erica smiled wanly as she rested her hand on Stiles' leg. “We're not going anywhere.”

Stiles smiled. “I hope not, cause if you guys ditch me I’m pretty sure Chris will freak out about tracking my feral ass down, not to mention what it would do to hunter relations around here.”

She glared at him. “You're not going to go feral Stiles.”

He sighed. “You don’t know that though...Even Derek has said that all shifters have a moment where they lose themselves.”

She pursed her lips once more before telling him. “Deaton and Chris gave us some stuff to help.”

Stiles blinked at Erica before frowning, he didn’t know anything about that but the only thing that came to mind was mountain ash. “Uh won't you guys playing with mountain ash be kinda redundant? I mean you’d just be stuck too right?”

Erica rolled her eyes at him. “Not mountain ash Stiles, things that effect Bastili. They won't affect us and we can keep an eye on you until you are grounded.”

Stiles was silent a moment as he processed all he was hearing from the girl. “What’d they give you?”

Smirking Erica delighted a little in telling the boy. “Catnip”

Stiles blinked before he burst out laughing, Erica smirked at the broad smile she’d caused on the boy's face. 

When Stiles had calmed himself some he sputtered. “You’re joking right?”

She shook her head. “Nope, apparently it’ll distract a Bastili, make you sleepy.”

The boy chuckled as he spoke. “So my friends are going to get me loaded on supernatural catnip.”

Erica laughed. “I guess we are.”

“That...That is just awesome, in a this is too freaky for words kinda way. I can't believe this is my life.”

Erica smirked back at the amused boy. “Oh it's your life alright, somehow after some of the things Scott’s told us, I don’t think your father will bat much of an eye about this.”

Stiles scowled at the werewolf. “Ha ha ha...He’s going to freak Erica, I mean how the hell do we even tell him? Oh hey, dad yeah you know those douchebag hunters that paralyzed me, turns out they didn’t just do that, I have a spark oh and that’s basically just magic. I’m going to turn into a frickin supernatural cat so if you’d be kind enough to buy me a scratching post that’d be great.”

Erica snorted at the boy's dry humor. “It won't be that bad Stiles if anything I’d wager he’d be relieved.”

Raising a brow to the girl the boy questioned. “You hit your head recently?”

Glaring the wolf explained. “Think about it, he doesn’t have it in him to stop you from associating with us but knows that you're in danger for doing so. Running after monsters and being threatened by people who would harm the pack. Finding out that you're all of the sudden no longer so fragile, that now you can heal from things that might have killed you before. I think he’ll feel better about you being with the pack.”

Stiles was quiet a moment as he took in what she had to say, she wasn’t entirely wrong there. It would give his father some piece of mind to know that he wasn’t the fragile breakable human who ran with wolves any longer. Knowing it would be something he had to think about at length, Stiles looked up to Erica and with a serious tone asked. “Do you think I’ll shed?”

 


	13. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott tries to find some way to help distract Stiles from his coming transformation, the pack do their best to help and like always Stiles is a sarcastic little shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay another chapter! Just a reminder that you might not get a chapter next week due to my surgery. I will resume the normal schedule after that and boy is there so much more in store for you all to read. I hope you all are enjoying the story thus far, leave a comment or kudo if you do. I love hearing from people.

Distractions

 

Scott walked out into the loft space and nodded to Isaac and Boyd, the pair were working steadily on the pile of dishes. The food having been wrapped up already and put away, turning away from the two Beta’s Scott walked towards the window. For once Derek had decided to stay on the ground floor, the Alpha was tucked in on a chair before the window reading the book on the Bastili. Scott glanced out the window as he leaned on the window frame.

“Problem?”

“Nope, just wondered where we go from here.”

Derek raised a brow, but never looked up from his reading. “Depends on what you mean by that.”

“Well, I know the logical thing would be to have my mom come to give his wounds the final check, take out the main line as he can drink at least. Once Stiles can move we’ll deal with the catheter, but when should we call the sheriff over?”

Derek glanced up at Scott a moment before his eyes went back to the page he was reading, it was obvious the other Alpha had thought about it. The teen’s mind seemed to be whirling around all they had yet to face, but for the moment Derek focused on the question the teen was leveling against him. “Has he asked about his father?”

“No, but its only a matter of time.”

“Then we wait.”

Scott frowned at the other Alpha. “Okay? How long?”

“Until he asks.”

“Why?”

Sighing Derek looked up pointedly to Scott. “Because until Stiles asks, he’s not ready to deal with it. We’ve still got some time before his first shift so we can give him that time to deal with whatever is going on in his head.”

Scott nodded his head before frowning when something came to mind, something that would put a kink in his fellow Alpha’s plans if it held true. Knowing Stiles, it would. “And if he never asks?”

“Then a couple of days before the eclipse we call the sheriff and force him to face it.”

Scott grimaced at that idea, looking out the window to try and avoid the Alpha’s hard eyes.

“Scott, we have some time. Don’t stress him out, there’s nothing we can do to change things and he’ll need to get used to the idea of being a shifter in the first place. Let alone telling his dad.”

“I know.”

There was a moment of silence before Derek spoke again. “Then why are you really here bothering me?”

Scott snorted at him. “I’m not bothering you.”

There was so much he could say in response to that, but Derek held back by the skin of his teeth. Getting into an argument with the other Alpha wouldn’t solve any of their problems, neither would it solve whatever dilemma Scott was currently having to be this obnoxious in the first place. “I think I will be the judge of that, now why are you really here.”

Scott shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Go find a book.”

Scott chuckled when Derek misunderstood what he meant, shaking his head the teen muttered. “Not right now Derek, I meant with Stiles...I don’t know what to do with Stiles...For him, anything.”

Comprehending what the younger Alpha meant now, Derek thought briefly about it before offering his take on things. “Before all of this happened before you were bitten and knew about the supernatural. What would you have done to cheer him up?”

Scott frowned as he turned to look at Derek. “But that’s-”

“Just answer me.”

Sighing Scott thought a moment before he mumbled. “I don’t know, normally if something was really bothering him...Like his mom’s anniversary or something, I’d distract him. Bring movies and pizza over or play video games...He can't move though.”

“So what would you do if he couldn’t move?”

Scott glared at Derek, growing frustrated with whatever the other Alpha was trying to work around. “This isn’t the same thing Derek! He’s paralyzed not mopping because of some test at school and things are-”

“Irrelevant.”

Scott pulled back and shook his head “Irrelevant?”

Derek nodded his head. “The situation doesn’t matter because you’re the same people. Human, werewolf, Bastili, it doesn’t matter Scott. That doesn’t make you who you are, its what you are. So what would you do for him if you were both human and he was paralyzed?”

Scott glared, but Derek could tell it wasn’t at him, it was at the situation before him as he thought hard on a solution. Finally, he sighed. “Stiles always says my plans suck.”

“Well he might be right, but at the moment he can’t complain much.”

Scott smirked back at the Alpha, Derek had a point there. “True.”

Nodding his head Derek questioned even as he returned his gaze to the book he was reading. “So what are you going to do?”

Scott looked out the window a faint smirk to his features. “I need to run into town.”

“Go, we’ll be here.”

Nodding his head Scott turned and after gathering his jacket and slipping on his shoes once more he was out the door. Derek looked up long enough to watch him go before looking over to where Boyd and Isaac were finishing their cleaning of the kitchen. The two Beta’s looked over at him, he smirked before lowering his gaze back onto the page he was reading.

“He’ll be back, lord knows what with, but if it keeps both him and Stiles out of trouble, it's worth it.”

Boyd and Isaac shared a look, neither willing to mention how much the Alpha might come to regret that way of thinking depending on whatever it was that Scott had gone to retrieve.

 

**************************

 

Noah jumped when the front door came open unexpectedly, standing as fast as he could he reached for his gun in the side table only to frown and have to turn as Scott ran up the stairs.

“Scott?”

A moment later he was giving chase, Noah quickly found the boy in his son’s room. “What are you doing? Is everything okay?”

Scott stopped what he was doing and looked up in a sheepish manner, having been caught red-handed. “So sorry...I got caught up in what I was here for, I should have knocked.”

Sighing when it appeared that there was no immediate crisis Noah questioned the boy again. “Is everything okay?”

Scott nodded his head as he continued to search through Stiles’ belongings. “Yeah everything's fine, I just wanted to grab some things...Were trying to keep his mind occupied ya know?”

Noah smirked. “I’m sure he’s going stir crazy, just sitting there. Has to be hard not being able to even speak to anyone. Knowing Stiles, he’s got a running commentary on everything you guys are doing.”

Scott froze once more in his searching to look back at the sheriff, grimacing a moment when he realized yet another fatal error of his. “Oh sorry.”

Raising a brow the man asked. “What for?”

Straightening himself up Scott muttered. “He can talk now...It just happened a little bit ago. I should have called, but we’ve been so busy catching up and feeding him.”

The sheriff seemed to deflate as he leaned against the door. “He’s talking and eating.”

Scott nodded his head. “Yeah, my mom’s gonna stop by later tonight and check him out, but he seems like he’s on the mend.”

“Thank god...What are you looking for then? Something to distract him I take it?”

Scott nodded his head even as he looked around his best friends room, still searching for what he’d come to retrieve.

“Yeah, we’ve been talking, but even we can only take so much of that. Netflix gets boring after a while so I wanted to find something to remind him of home and keep him busy.”

Noah smirked at the boy. “Alright, well let's see what he’s got lying around.”

Scott grinned and with the help of his best friends father the pair searched the boy's room for things that could be easily used to keep the pragmatic boy entertained.

 

*************************

 

“So are Derek and Scott having another fight cause he’s been gone a while.”

Erica shook her head. “It's quiet out there, well besides the boys cleaning.”

“Hmm...I think they’re up to something.”

Smirking Erica replied. “You're paranoid.”

“Maybe...Maybe not.”

Snorting the werewolf commented. “I can put something on Netflix for you to watch.”

Stiles thought a moment about the offer, instead of allowing the girl to choose something that would most likely bring him to tears, Stiles chose to ask. “ Have you ever seen Xena warrior princess?” Erica shook her head. Stiles grinned. “Key it up my friend and learn how to be a badass warrior princess.”

Rolling her eyes Erica rose and found the program on Netflix, all the while commenting. “I may not be a princess, but I’m pretty badass.”

“Oh no arguments there, but just watch and learn.”

Smirking she climbed onto the bed with Stiles and leaned against the headboard. Relaxing against Stiles as the opening credits rolled she muttered. “This looks lame.”

“Shh.”

Smirking Erica obeyed the boy's command and silenced herself, mot ten minutes into the show did Isaac and Boyd come back. They glanced to the laptop screen and then to them, both with raised brows.

“Don’t ask, he’s the one who-.”

“Shhh.”

Erica clamped her mouth shut, but was smirking at the boy's actions of shushing her, Isaac and Boyd smirked as well. Following Erica’s lead, they found their spots on the bed and turned to watch the show. Stiles smiled to himself, it was surreal to be curled up with a pack of werewolves and yet he found it to be one of the best moments he could recall as of late. It wasn’t until the end of the second episode that anyone dared to speak again.

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at Isaac before in a dull voice pointed out a major flaw in the werewolves complaint. “Its T.V. and anythings possible dude or did you forget that you're a werewolf?”

“He’s got a point.” Boyd said softly. 

Issac sighed. “Fine, even if we consider our being werewolves. How can she get the perfect hit every time? There’s no way, too many variables and whatever to make a shot 100% of the time.”

“Isaac I love you man, but if you don’t shut up about this being unrealistic I will become your worst enemy.”

Issac frowned at the paralyzed form of Stiles, only for his eyes to widen when he saw the man mouth ‘Allison’ he clamped his mouth shut and turned to face the laptop. Stiles smirked to himself, he knew it was evil to use that against the kid, but at least now it was quiet. By the end of the third episode, the group of Beta’s were beginning to grow restless, obviously wanting to comment on things. 

Sighing Stiles finally muttered. “Alright, fine. You can talk.”

“Where did you find this?”

“And have you watched all of it?”

“That’s just a supreme waste of time in my opinion.”

“Mine too.”

Stiles glanced back and forth between Isaac and Erica before looking to Boyd.

“Well?”

The teen smirked at him before saying. “You are losing this argument.”

Stiles glared at him. “Just tell me what you thought.”

Boyd sighed before he glanced back to the laptop as the credits rolled and it asked if they wanted to watch another episode. “It is...Strange. The mythology is too close to our lives in some ways.”

“Exactly, see he gets it.”

Boyd smirked before adding. “However, I prefer more realistic shows.”

Stiles groaned as the other two Beta’s celebrated. “You all fail, you know that right? I mean come on, your literally werewolves and you don’t find science fiction or fantasy to be intriguing? Your living myths.”

“probably why it bores us.” Erica commented dryly. 

Stiles glared at her. “You weren’t always a werewolf though, what about before?”

She frowned a moment before stating. “I wouldn’t have watched it then either.”

Issac chuckled and Boyd smirked. 

“I can't believe what I’m hearing...You know what, you all fail and I’m supremely disappointed in you all. Bad wolves, bad.”

The Beta’s snorted at him, obviously not put out by his declaration. Stiles couldn’t contain the faint smile from his face though and soon they were chuckling together while Isaac found them a different show to watch.

 

**********************

 

Derek glanced up when he heard Scott opening the loft's door, he raised a brow when he saw the backpack on the boy's shoulders.

“Find what you needed?”

Scott nodded his head as he walked over. “Yeah...Though I did kinda screw up a bit.”

“Oh?”

“I may have scared the sheriff, I forgot he’d be home by then and so when I barged in and ran up the stairs...He kinda freaked out a bit.”

Snorting Derek replied. “Your lucky he didn’t shoot you.”

Scott tilted his head a moment and with a smirk said. “He said the same thing”

Derek nodded towards the bag, silently asking what was in it. Scott grinned at him.

“You want to see, you have to come into the bedroom.”

Derek raised a brow at that, but watched the Alpha spin around and march off down the hallway. Calling out as he went.

“It's going to be awesome.”

Smirking Derek shook his head and rose to follow after the Alpha. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on things, with someone like Scott and Stiles you never knew what would happen.  The pair entered one after another and both smirked when they came upon the Beta’s arguing with Stiles as they all watched a show on the laptop.

“ Wrong.” Stiles sang out in a happy tune. 

Issac snorted at him. “I am not.”

“You are too.”

“Am not.”

“Boys.” Erica called out exasperatedly. 

Boyd was grinning as he watched his girlfriend deal with the two arguing teens. Both had looked at her when she spoke up, having their attention the Beta intoned.

“Shut up.”

Stiles glanced to Isaac and Isaac to Stiles, they both snorted before starting up again.

“You’re wrong and you know it.”

“you're wrong.”

“What's the argument about?”

They both looked to Scott, but before Isaac could tell the Alpha about the argument which was about the T.V. show they were watching, Stiles cried out. “Scott, where you been? You left me with these piranhas men, they’re ruthless and mean...They don’t like Xena. Can you believe that?”

Scott looked to his friend and in a dry tone replied. “I can believe that how many episodes did you all suffer through?”

“We stopped after 3.”

Scott sighed. “Lucky bastards.”

They laughed at the look on the boys face as he crossed the room to sit beside Stiles.

“No more torturing the pack with crappy T.V.”

“Hey!”

Smirking Scott ignored the boy's protests by rummaging through the bag he’d brought with him. Seeing that he no longer held Scott's attention, Stiles looked towards where Derek was standing.

“You’d be more of a Farscape man I think...”

Derek raised a brow at the boy's statement, only to smirk along with the rest of the pack when Scott muttered. “No, no he would not.” Straightening himself out, Scott told his friend. “I brought some things from your house.”

“You went to my house? Why?”

Scott shook his head before continuing. “Just because...Close your eyes.”

“Seriously? You want me the paralyzed guy to shut off one of his senses just for your entertainment?”

Scott growled at his friend, Stiles smirked before stating.

“Oh you know I love it when you growl. Fine, I’m closing my eyes.”

The pack was chuckling at the boy's comments to the Alpha, Scott had just shaken his head and quickly stopped growling and once Stiles’s eyes were shut, did Scott smirk. He twisted about and put a finger to his mouth which had the rest of the pack nodding as they all wanted to see what the other teen was up too. A moment later they were holding back their need to laugh as he handed them all one of the items he’d brought with him, once they were armed did he nod.

“Keep them closed.”

“They’re closed alright? I can at least control that Scott, now would you hurry the hell up cause this is boring.”

Smirking Scott glanced to them all and nodded. “Sure....No problem. On the count of three, you can open them.”

“Fine-Fine.”

“One.”

The pack shifted closer.

“Two.”

They smirked at each other and readied their attack.

“Three!”

Stiles opened his eyes only for them to widen just as he let out a scream as he was suddenly being sprayed by multiple cans of silly string as the pack laughed. Stiles quickly slammed his mouth shut, along with his eyes and waited it out. Once the last of the string had been used did Stiles mumble through his covered face.

“Are you done?”

“You look like colorful spaghetti fell on you.”

“Isaac.”

“Hmm?”

“you're a moron.”

The group chuckled before Scott wiped Stiles’ face off, once he could open his eyes Stiles looked around and glared. “Seriously? Picking on the guy who can't defend himself...How rude.”

Scott smirked at him before saying. “Don’t worry, I got some things to keep you entertained, I just wanted a little revenge is all.”

Stiles glowered at his friend a moment before looking around to the rest of the pack, the only one who hadn’t helped in his assault was Derek though that wasn’t a big surprise to the teen. Despite not having helped in the assault the Alpha was sporting a sly smirk to his face.

“You could have stopped them.” Stiles told the man in a somewhat irritated voice. Derek shook his head.  “bullshit, I know you could have.”

Smirking Derek replied. “Only if I had challenged Scott’s authority as an Alpha.”

Stiles glared at the blatant lie that had just been spouted by the Alpha. “That might work on someone who doesn’t know better, but I do. Scott wasn’t giving an Alpha order for them to spray me with the silly string you jackass. You could have stopped it.”

Smirking when the teen called him out on the lie that the others had been snickering to Derek intoned. “Probably, but I didn’t see a reason too.”

The others chuckled openly as Stiles glared hotly at the man.  “Just you wait, I’ll get you all back.” Derek snorted at that, which caused Stiles to retort. “Oh your first buddy, just wait and see. I will make you live to regret not helping my sorry ass.”

Derek couldn’t help but point out to the teen. “I’m not scared of you Stiles.”

The boy replied. “Oh I know that, but there are plenty of things I can do to change that.”

Raising a brow the Alpha asked. “Like?”

Stiles thought a moment before he muttered in defeat. “Okay, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but rest assured that I will think of something and when I do you will regret ever messing with me you wolfy bastard.”

The pack chuckled at Stiles comment, while Derek glared back at the human.

“Don’t call me that.”

Stiles grinned when he sensed the ever looming sore point for the man, playing the Alpha’s game Stiles quickly replied. “Okay, Sourwolf.”

Scott snorted before he patted Stiles' leg. “Alright, that’s enough...Here.”

He showed the boy what he had brought with him, Stiles laughed. “Did you seriously buy me a crazy straw?”

“Sure why not? At least this way you can drink without someone tipping a glass down your front.”

Stiles laughed again only to frown when he realized it was actually more practical than he would like. Sighing he muttered. “I hate that you make a good point.”

Scott smirked at his friend before digging out another item, Stiles watched carefully to see what else Scott may have brought him. 

When he saw the old sweatshirt he beamed. “Oh, awesome!”

“I don’t get it?” Erica said as she watched Scott lay the sweatshirt aside. 

Stiles glance to her and said. “That is by far the best damn sweatshirt in existence.”

“Okay?” The girl said bemusedly as she stared at the rather raggedy old sweatshirt which seemed to be ‘amazing’ to Stiles. 

Stiles rolled his eyes before stating. “It used to be my dad’s, but I kept stealing it and so he eventually gave it to me.”

Erica smirked before she stated. “So your father who is the sheriff rewarded you for stealing?”

Stiles laughed when he thought about it, Erica had a point and he would need to ask his dad about that later. “Yeah, I guess he did...Huh, wonder if he knows that.”

Scott shook his head at the two of them before commenting. “I figured you’d like it while you’re cooped up here. We can change you into it if you want.”

Stiles glanced down to the shirt he was wearing. It was soft and warm, he really didn’t need to wear both the shirt and sweatshirt, but found he didn’t want to part with either. “Maybe later.”

Scott nodded his head, turning back to the backpack he pulled out a pack of red vines.

“You’re the best!”

Scott smirked as he put the candy on top of the sweatshirt on the boy's lap. “Oh but I saved the best for last”

Stiles grinned at his friend. “Oh yeah? What’d you bring?”

Scott smirked as he pulled out the last item in the bag, A black binder was pulled free and Stiles cried out.

“Oh my god! Yes!”

“What? What is it?” Issac asked curiously. 

Stiles glanced at him. “It's my movie collection.”

Scott grinned at his friend before telling the pack. “He’s got too many to fit in a normal case so he rigged this up to hold them all. He’s gotta have over two hundred movies in here.”

“That’s a lot.” Boyd muttered as he gazed at the binder curiously. 

Scott nodded his head. “Yeah, it is.” Scott smirked at Stiles as he asked. “So, you get to choose the first movie, but nothing bizarre.”

“I promise, nothing from the purple section will be picked. I wouldn’t want to melt your brains.”

“Purple section?” Issac queried. 

“It's color-coded so he can find things easier. Purple is his bizarre section, things that are tripy or don’t have solid plots...I can't stand them.”

Stiles snorted. “You don’t have an imagination. Open it”

Scott smirked even as he ignored the lame insult from his bedridden friend and did as he was told. The pack crowded in to see the different colored tabs on the side, Stiles glanced at them all before calling out. “Hmm...Oh oh, I know the perfect movie...Black.”

Scott flipped to the black section and waited. Once he was there, the smaller tabs divided the movies into categories. 

“Okay, I think it's on the blue tab.” Scott nodded and flipped to that section.“Next page.”

Scott flipped again. “Bingo...Second one down on the right.”

Scott flipped the binder around and followed the boy's instructions before pausing. Stiles had a shit eating grin on his face when Scott looked up at him with a scowl on his face.

“Problem Scott?”

“you're hilarious.”

Stiles beamed back at him. “Go on...Put it in.”

Sighing, Scott fished out the disk and rose to go put it in the laptop.

“What movie?” Issac asked curiously as to what had set the Alpha off. 

Scott sighed and in a pained tone muttered. “Werewolf in London.”

The others groaned at the boy's humor as Stiles laughed.  

“That’s just mean dude.” Issac complained. 

Stiles snorted. “Suck it up buttercup, I could have chosen something like Rec.”

“Rec?”

“Mmhmm. Zombie virus movie, quarantined people, can't get out. It's scary as hell man.”

Issac snorted. “I doubt that.”

Stiles grinned at the werewolf before stating. “Well then, I’ll bet you ten bucks you get freaked out by it. We can watch it next.”

“you're on.”

Stiles then glanced to the other wolves.“You have to tell me if he smells scared.”

Issac glared at Stiles, but the other pack members nodded their heads, the room was suddenly shifted when Stiles called out. “Don’t even think about it Sourwolf.”

They all turned to see Derek scowling at Stiles, his body turned as if he had been about to leave. Stiles grinned. “Sit your butt down.”

“No.”

“You have too, its a classic man…” When his explanation didn’t seem to sway the other man Stiles grew desperate. “It’s practically heritage to your people.”

Derek snorted at the teen's lame attempts to keep him in the room for the movie, he was quick to point out. “No it's not and no I don’t.”

Sighing Stiles reminded the Alpha. “But don’t you want to stick around and watch Isaac freak out and owe me ten bucks.”

Issac was glowering at the human boy, though he was being ignored. Derek smirked at that before shaking his head. “I have-”

“Sit down and join us for Pete's sake.”

Derek glared at Erica, but the girl wasn’t paying any attention to him, instead, she was getting comfortable leaning against Boyd.

“I have things to do.”

“Liar.”

Derek glared at Stiles, the boy smirked back at him. “I’m not lying.”

“You are too.”

The pack watched the two bicker silently with their eyes a moment before Derek questioned Stiles.

“How would you know?”

Stiles smirked back at the Alpha, not dissuaded by the man’s calling him out on his belief that he could tell when the Alpha was lying. “Cause, you're a Sourwolf and you're only going out there so you won't have to admit to enjoying yourself in here. Most likely because you haven’t had your ‘me’ space with all of us crashing here, I know you well enough to tell when you're lying now, Derek.”

Derek glared at the boy before saying. “You’re wrong.”

“No, actually I’m not. But you keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.”

Stiles gave a beaming smile to the agitated Alpha, Derek glowered a moment before he turned and left. Once the Alpha was gone did Stiles mutter under his breath. “Sourwolf.”

The pack smirked at the boy's determination to get the last word in, the silence that echoed down the hall told them that Derek was in too much of a mood to say anything despite the boy being unable to hear him. A moment later they had settled in to watch the movie together. Scott occasionally feeding Stiles a piece of his licorice.

 

*****************************

 

Derek glared out the window a moment, trying to clear his thoughts. It unnerved him to think that Stiles might know him well enough now to know when he was lying, the others, of course, would be able to tell such a thing. He hadn’t been lying though, Derek had intended to finish reading the book on the Bastili. Yet the notion that Stiles was able to call him out on his antisocial behavior was disturbing, he spent time with the pack, he enjoyed spending time with the pack. It's just that he wasn’t the type to linger around people, Derek was awkward in social situations because his wolf told him one thing and his human side told him another. Derek had learned to trust his wolf so much over the years when it came to life and death that it was hard for him to see the benefit in listening to his human side, to care what people thought. Granted he cared about what the pack thought, to a degree. Derek was an Alpha after all and no matter how devoted he was to the Beta’s, he had to be the one always in control.

His mind flitted back to Stiles, he swore he felt his heart clench in his chest. The very thought of the boy could make him act differently,  it wasn’t always a bad thing or at least Derek didn’t think it was. Sighing to himself, Derek pulled himself away from the window and curled up once more in his chair. Picking up the book he flipped to the last page he had been reading, he needed to learn as much as he could to prepare for whatever might come about with Stiles’s first shift. Derek wasn’t about to put his pack in danger if there was something he could do to make sure that Stiles kept himself aware, he would do it.

 

***********

 

A couple of hours had passed since Derek had left the pack and Stiles alone to watch their movies, he had finished reading the book Chris had left about Bastili’s. It left a lot of questions unanswered for the Alpha. Derek knew there was no one to ask though, no one he could contact in the time between now and the eclipse next week to figure out more about the creatures. Sighing Derek put the book aside and glared out the nearby window. He had been drifting, his mind caught up in a whirlwind of activity as he tried to sort out everything going on, a sudden scream had him up and running before his brain could process what was going on. All he could hear was the sound of a pack mate being harmed, when he ran to the door he slid to a halt. Derek frowned when the pack looked at him, Isaac had his hand over his mouth and Stiles was grinning.

“Wow, what was that like three seconds? Good timing Derek.”

Glaring the Alpha called out. “You scared him so I’d come running?”

Stiles snorted at the wolfs accusation. “No dumbass, the movie did...Just like I said it would.” And on that note, Stiles tilted his head towards the blonde and smirked. “Pay up.”

Issac glared at the human as he lowered his hand from his mouth, Derek sighed and shook his head as he watched Isaac smirk as he held a ten dollar bill out. Offering it to the paralyzed boy, Stiles glanced to the money and then up to Isaac.

“You’re an ass.”

Issac smirked before saying. “Well I could tuck it in your shirt, but people might get the wrong impression of you.”

Stiles burst out laughing at that. “Yeah, that’d be hard to explain huh?” It was then that Stiles frowned, his memory bringing forth the fact that after being abducted the majority of his belongings were either destroyed or left behind. “Oh man...Where is my wallet? Did you guys find it at my jeep?”

The wolves tensed a moment before relaxing upon realizing the boy was asking a harmless question. Scott shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know, I could call your dad if you want.”

Stiles sighed. “I loved that wallet...If it ended up in the middle of that damned forest.” The boy took a breath before stating. “I really hope that you scratched those bastards up good.”

The pack smirked at the put out boy, it figured that he’d be more upset by losing his wallet in the woods because of the hunters than the actual kidnapping, torture and death threats.

“we got them pretty good...I mean they weren’t going anywhere.”

Stiles smirked. “Yeah? You break some bones?”

Issac shrugged. “Boyd might have cracked a guys skull...M’not sure.”

Stiles glanced to Boyd only to have the normally silent boy shrug. “Maybe.”

Stiles smirked before looking to Erica. “Were you a badass warrior princess?”

She laughed before nodding. “Let's just say that if the hunters don’t end him, he’s going to be avoiding mirrors the rest of his life.”

Stiles’s eyes widened at the mental picture that brought forth. “Seriously? What the fuck did you do to him?”

She shrugged before nonchalantly stating. “Clawed his face.”

Stiles laughed. “Ouch...Like really that had to hurt.”

The girl shrugged again before stating. “He had it coming.”

“You are a badass warrior princess.”

She smirked at the human, tilting back to look up at Boyd she asked. “Am I your badass warrior princess Boyd?”He smirked and nodded. She grinned before leaning up to give the man a peck on the lips.

“Ew.”

The pair turned to stare at Stiles only to find the boy smirking as he faked them out, snorting Erica made the remark. “Keep it up, I’ll call Lydia for you.”

Stiles glared. “You’re evil.”

She smirked. “I can be.”

Sighing Stiles looked over to Scott and Derek. “Did you two just lay about while they did all the work?”

Scott snorted at the same time Derek rolled his eyes.

“No, Derek chased down their leader and I took out another guy.”

Stiles nodded for all of a second before he remarked in a teasing tone towards Derek. “You know for all your threats I’ve yet to see you actually tear a guys throat out with your teeth. I’m beginning to think your all bark and no bite Sourwolf.”

Ignoring the annoying nickname the boy tended to call him Derek smirked. “I almost did that day. Issac interrupted.”

That seemed to surprise the Beta cause he called out. “I did?”

Derek nodded, a frown quick to appear on his face as he told the rest of the pack what had happened before Isaac interrupted him. “He was...Gloating, at the time I didn’t know that Stiles was still alive. If you hadn’t run up to tell me that, he would have had his throat ripped out.”

Issac shrugged. “Huh, maybe next time I’ll wait a few minutes before finding you.”

Derek smirked at the boy's comment, Stiles glanced to Isaac in shock.

“Damn man.”

Issac smirked. “What? They had it coming. They kidnapped you, tortured you and made us believe you were dead.”

“True...They were high up on the douchebag totem pole.”

The pack chuckled at the boy's remark, Stiles then looked to Derek, telling the Alpha. “Well, all the same, I’m glad you didn’t get pieces of hunter stuck in your teeth. I really doubt if he’d taste good.”

Derek smirked at the sarcastic boy. “Me too.”

Stiles grinned at the Alpha before his attention was brought to Scott when his friend spoke up. “We can get you a new wallet though.”

Stiles sighed. “Yeah, unless dad found it at the jeep, it's long gone...Stupid hunters. Why is it that Chris’s family is the only sane one?” He paused upon registering the flaw in that statement before looking at Derek. “Some exclusions aside.”

The Alpha smirked at him, well aware of who he was talking about, the others chuckled a moment before Scott shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t know dude, think that’s just how it is.”

Stiles hummed at that. “True, but at least Chris and Allison are good.”

“They are.”

Issac spoke up, Stiles couldn’t help but think the boy was trying to his secret girlfriend was one of the good ones. He held back his smirk, as he didn’t want to rat out the boy. Stiles had promised, so instead, he chose to move the conversation forward in the hopes that it wouldn’t attract more attention to Allison and by association Isaac. 

“Well, either way, most hunters we’ve met are a little screwy, then again most of the creatures we’ve come across are downright psycho assholes...So ya know it evens out.”

The pack chuckled at the human’s claims. Even Derek had a smirk on his face, which made Stiles feel good. He knew that the topic of Kate could bring about a bad mood in the Alpha like no one's business. Which was why the pack chose their words carefully when talking about certain things, the fact that her name hadn’t actually been brought up was most likely why Derek appeared to still be in a good mood. 

Glancing to Scott the human questioned. “So how was my dad?”

“He’s good, he was   happy to hear that your talking again.”

Stiles smirked as he crowed out. “Ha, so all those times he begged me to shut up were a lie. I knew it.”

The others smirked as Scott retorted. “No, I’m pretty sure he meant that I just think he was weirded out that his wish for silence was carried out in a nefarious manner.”

Stiles blinked at his friend a moment before he snorted. “You’re an ass.”

Scott smirked before he leaned over to pat his friend's leg. “Anyways, I told him my mom would be coming to check your wounds again and take out the mainline seeing as your able to eat and drink.”

Stiles winced upon hearing that. “Aw man...She’s gonna be pulling it outta my neck.”

Scott smirked. “Well yeah, dude, it's kinda in there.”

Stiles blanched at that before saying. “Gross.”

Smirking Scott shook his head before warning Stiles. “The catheter will be worse.”

He hadn’t thought about that. “Damn it.”

Scott nodded as if agreeing with his friend. “Yeah I know man, but she’s really good at her job and she won't say nothing.”

Stiles snorted before retaliating. “Scott, how would you like it if my dad had to put a tube out of your dick?”

Scott paled a bit before muttering. “Yeah...Right, sorry.”

Stiles sighed dramatically. “The worst part is, knowing your mom she’s going to try and talk to me during it. She did when she put it in anyways...Course I couldn’t talk back so that made it a little less awkward.”

Scott chuckled but hid his face in his arm when Stiles glared at him.

“It's not funny!”

“Sorry.” The boy combated, chuckling a bit more he tried to make Stiles feel better. “She’s just doing her job, besides it's not any easier for her ya know. She knows you. She’s only gonna talk because she thinks it will help.”

“It won't.” Came the dry response. 

Scott sighed. “Yeah, I know that Stiles, but hey its a ways off right? You won't need it out until you can actually move.”

“Small mercies never thought I’d want to stay paralyzed.” Scott gave his friend a scowl at that, Stiles gave him a smirk. “You my friend are going to lose, there is nothing you could possibly say that would make me alright with this.”

Scott sighed as he registered what his friend had said to him, it was Erica’s voice that broke the tension.

“Could be worse.” They both glanced to her in confusion. She smirked before stating. “Once this is done it won't happen again, right? Your bodies already changing so once done, something like this won't happen again. Any wounds you get would just heal, maybe not as fast as us, but they’d heal. If you had remained human something like this might have happened again.”

The pack tensed, afraid that what the girl had said might bother the boy as they hadn’t yet broached the subject of his shift. Stiles was silent a moment before he said. “Touche warrior princess touche...Once will be enough though thank you very much.” His eyes flitted towards Scott and he smirked. “Won't be so bad right?”

Scott smiled and gave a nod.

  
  


*************************************

 

When Melissa did arrive to double check Stiles ‘wounds’ the nurse visited with the pack a while before getting to the real reason she was there. She smiled at Stiles and said. “Well, you don’t need the mainline anymore. So how about I take it out?”

Stiles sighed. “If you have too.”

She smirked at the boys resigned tone of voice, she knew he wasn’t looking forward to this. “I have too.”

The pack and Stiles watched her put on a pair of gloves before she disconnected the saline drip and unscrewed the extra piping. Leaving just the I.V. catheter in his neck to be tended too. 

“Alright, I’m going to peel the tape off, but I’m not going to pull the catheter out yet okay. You're going to think it's moving,   not.”

Stiles sighed. “This blows.”

Melissa ignored him as she started to peel the tape securing the catheter to the boy's neck. Stiles grimaced at that, causing the pack to shift nervously.

“You alright dude?”

Instead of answering his friend's question, Stiles made a face and quickly stated what he was feeling. “Oh fuck this is gross.”

“Stiles language.” Melissa muttered as she continued to pull the tape free. Stiles rolled his eyes, well aware that she couldn’t see it. 

Scott smirked at him and patted his leg. “Almost done dude.”

“Its...Squiggly and weird. I don’t like it.”

The pack smirked at his explanation.

“Squiggly?” Issac taunted. 

Stiles glowered at him before stating in an irritated voice. “Yes asshole, squiggly. I can feel the tube in my neck moving.”

Issac blanched at that. “Ew.”

Stiles glared at him, Melissa patted the teen’s shoulder. “Alright, I’m going to start pulling the tube free. It's going to feel like a suction, once it's out I’ll put some gauze and tape it on.” She turned to the others and said. “It's going to bleed, just remember that he’s fine.”

They nodded, secretly glad that she had warned them about the boy's blood being spilled, they watched anxiously as she started pulling the catheter tube free. 

Stiles made a choking sound. “Oh..God...So gross. Wrong wrong wrong...”

The pack smirked good-naturedly at him, though they all scrunched up their faces a moment later. Stiles saw it once he realized that the horrible ‘squiggly’ sensation was gone, he smirked at the pained expressions on his friend's faces. “I’m bleeding aren’t I?”

Scott gave him a pained look. “Yeah.”

“Not a big deal guys, can't even tell, well it doesn’t hurt I mean...I can feel liquid on my neck so I’m going to guess that’s blood.”

Scott patted his friend's leg before asking. “Please stop talking.”

Stiles smirked, Melissa glanced back at her son and smiled. “He’s fine Scott.” She moped up the blood before swapping out a clean gauze pad and began taping it down. Once it was secured did she come into Stiles line of vision once more. “All done.” She looked at Scott and said. “Depending on how fast he’s healing, that could bleed a bit.”

Scott nodded his head. “Okay, no problem we can keep an eye on it.”

She smiled to her son, turning she gathered up the materials strewn about and the discarded used items and said. “Well, my job is done here. Once you can move we’ll worry about the other catheter.”

Stiles blanched at that. “Yeah...Awesome, can't wait.”

She smirked at the boy's hesitation and lack of enthusiasm, she patted his arm. “It’ll be fine Stiles.”

Looking to the rest of the pack the nurse in her came out once more. “Make sure he drinks enough and eats some good protein. Healing factor or not, his body is going to be using a lot of energy to deal with this.”

The group nodded. Walking over to her son she hugged Scott and kissed him on the cheek. “You take care of each other.”

Scott nodded. “We will.”

“Call if you need anything.”

Scott nodded once more. Melissa waved at the rest of them before making her way from the loft, alone once more the pack looked back towards Stiles. 

The teen was grinning. “One horrible tube out of my body, one to go.”

They snorted at him. Issac climbed back onto the bed beside Stiles and placed a warm hand on the boy's arm.

“Soon you’ll be running around again.”

Stiles smirked at the boy and in a sassy yet depreciating tone asked. “Yeah...On two legs or four though?”

Issac and the others froze. Stiles looked down at his lap, he felt a bit guilty for breaking the jovial mood, but it had been plaguing his mind since they told him about it.

Derek stepped forward to tell the boy. “Doesn’t matter, you’ll be here with us. Your shift isn’t going to keep you in that form Stiles, it's just like ours. You’ll have control over it soon enough.”

Stiles looked up at the Alpha and sighed. “What if I hurt you?”

Derek shook his head. “We have the things Deaton and Chris gave us, were werewolves Stiles. It's not like your surrounded by humans, we can take whatever you dish out.”

Stiles snorted and quickly pointed out the flaw in the Alpha’s plan. “And if I paralyze you? Then what? You going to yell at me to be a good kitty while your laying on the floor?”

Erica snorted. “If we have too.”

Stiles looked at her with wide eyes. The Beta smirked. “Look the chances of you actually paralyzing all of us are pretty slim Stiles. There’s more of us then there is of you, we can handle it.”

“I hope so.” The boy murmured. 

The pack stared at the boy a moment before Isaac prompted. “Let's watch another movie, we still have some time before all of that happens.”

Stiles looked at him and sighed. “Yeah...Alright.”

The pack knew that distracting the boy would only work so well, but hopefully the longer they spent together the more secure the boy would feel about his coming shift. All they could really do is support the boy.

 


	14. It burns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new side of the Bastili transformation is revealed to the pack, none of them like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally back to posting after that short hiatus, hope you all enjoy the new chapter. Leave a comment or Kudo if you did.

 

For the next three days, nothing much changed. The pack stayed in various groups surrounding Stiles. Sometimes it was just Erica and Boyd. Sometimes Isaac alone with the slowly transforming human, Scott normally came in and spent time with him separately while the others were busy as well as at night when the pack seemed to migrate into his room. Derek even came and went a few times, though he was never alone with Stiles. Always looming and making sure that another pack member was keeping the boy company. 

Stiles mood fluctuated throughout the days, sometimes he was happy and joking and other times he was sullen and quiet. The pack knew he was just processing what was going to be happening to him soon, so they did their best to show him support in whatever way they could. Even if that meant staying quiet and allowing the teen to think through things.

It was four days after he got the main line taken out of his neck that Stiles woke with a new change, first of all, he was sure that Isaac hadn’t turned his head to the side before falling to sleep beside him. The boy was still dozing and although the sight of the Beta sound asleep beside him was kinda cute, Stiles was confused as to how he was facing the boy. 

Stiles scrunched up his face when he realized his back was itchy, with nothing to be done about that he let out a sigh and twisted his head back around to stare straight ahead like he was used too. He blinked. Frowned. Then gasped. Glancing back to Isaac, Stiles grinned. He was moving his head. Stiles could move it where ever he wanted too and he proceeded to test this theory by looking all around the room, chuckling a bit Stiles looked back to Isaac and muttered quietly.

“Lazy werewolf, I’m here having the time of my life staring at a small room and you're in la-la land. Oblivious to the wonders of being able to move my own neck.”

Issac didn’t reply, not that Stiles thought he would. Smirking Stiles glanced back towards the doorway that was closed. Whoever spent the night with him normally shut it so the movements of the rest of the pack wouldn’t disturb him, it had the added effect though of making it so they couldn’t hear the people inside the room unless they raised their voices.

An evil glint came to his eye. A passing glance to Isaac, the human whispered. “Should have woken up dude...All you had to do was be amazed by my neck wielding awesomeness and we could have avoided this.” Chuckling to himself Stiles took a deep breath before he screamed at the top of his lungs. “My back itches!!!”

Stiles laughed uproariously when Isaac jumped, shifting as if to take on some threat before he fell off the bed. The door came open and the Beta was on his feet ready to take on whoever was coming in, but Isaac and those on the other side stopped. They blinked at one another before they all turned to glare at Stiles.

The boy smiled. “Morning.”

Issac’s shift faded back and the boy glared. “Seriously? You nearly gave me a damn heart attack.”

Stiles chuckled at the despondent wolf. “On the plus side your pretty fast at the whole shifting thing...Not so graceful on the not falling off the bed thing though.”

Issac glared harder, Stiles smirked not at all bothered at the disgruntled look the Beta was giving him. Scott coughed as he came further into the room the others had done. 

“What was that about? Were you trying to scare us?”

Stiles snorted. “Oh please, if I wanted to scare you I could do any number of things.”

The werewolves looked at the boy like he was nuts, Erica was the one to calmly remind him. “You're paralyzed...What could you possibly do to us?”

Stiles glared at her and then upon realizing that there was in fact little he could do to any of them at the present moment chose to respond with. “I could have screamed my neck was broken.”

They all glowered at him for his poor sense of humor.

Stiles grinned back at them when they thought his joke was in poor taste. “See, back being itchy not so bad now is it?”

Derek snorted, he was about to turn and leave when Stiles called out to the wolf, they all heard the sigh that left Derek as he turned back around to stare at the teen. Waiting for whatever it was that Stiles had stopped him for.

“So uh...You going to scratch my back?”

Derek glared at Stiles. “No”

Before Derek could turn and leave, Stiles called out again, growling a bit at the teen's penchant for irritating him like this Derek put his arms over his chest and glowered at the boy. “What Stiles?”

“I have a trick, you want to see the trick? Its a really awesome trick Derek. Come on, you know you want too.”

Derek snorted, obviously not amused by the boy, not that his reaction appeared to have any sway in what Stiles did. Grinning at the Alpha, Stiles twisted his head to the side to face Scott.

“Hey.”

They all jerked, Scott nearly falling off of the bed in the process of being shocked by his friend's sudden movement. “Jesus!, You can move.”

Stiles grinned before looking back to an equally stunned Derek. “Pretty neat trick right?”

Derek smirked back at him. 

“Can you move anything else?”

Stiles turned to face Isaac before shaking his head, using his newfound ability to move to his advantage. “Nope.”

“Well, you're bound to get the rest of it soon if this is any indication.”

Stiles smiled at Erica. “I hope so...When I woke up I thought Isaac had tilted my head. I couldn’t remember falling asleep like that, but when I moved my head and realized what I’d done...Well, I just had to share.” The wolves smirked at him. Before any of them could ask anything Stiles cut in. “But I wasn’t being a complete dick, my back does itch.”

Scott laughed a bit, before motioning Isaac to help him. “You hold him, I’ll scratch. Where’s it itch?”

“Uh...My spine...Middle-ish.”

“Middle-ish.” Scott snorted at the boy's lame explanation for the ‘itch’ he was supposed to be taking care of, Isaac snickered at the put out Alpha’s repeated words. He held Stiles forward, leaning the boy's body against him. 

Stiles twisted his head and said. “You're a cuddle whore, you know that right?”

The Beta blanched before snorting. “I can drop you.”

Stiles grinned. “You could, but then I’d just tell on you...Plus there are witnesses.”

Issac rolled his eyes but smirked when Stiles sighed and called out. “Oh god, so much better.”

Scott chuckled as he scratched his friends back. A moment later the calm was broken, Stiles hissed. Scott pulled his hand back in a hurry afraid of having hurt his friend by being too rough.

“What? Did I scratch too hard?”

Stiles looked over to him. “I don’t know...It..Hurts. Kinda, not bad, but burny like.”

The pack shifted closer as Scott leaned over to check Stiles.

“I’m gonna lift your shirt.”

“Were you using your claws, this burns man.” Stiles accused his friend with a hiss.

“No...I wouldn’t do that...Oh shit!”

“What...What is the shit for? Guys?”

Stiles glanced back to Isaac, just in time to see the boy lean over to see what Scott was seeing and pull back with wide eyes. Scott sat back up and put a hand on Stiles' shoulder as he glanced to Derek.

“Uh...So yeah, Deaton or Chris...Cause this is so not normal.”

Derek frowned as he walked over, ignoring the sputtering ramblings of Stiles who was demanding to know what the hell was wrong with his back. The Alpha peered over Scott’s shoulder and made a face.

“Does it still burn Stiles?”

“Fuck yes, now tell me what the fuck is going on man.”

“How bad does it burn?”

Stiles glanced over at him and glared. “Uh huh I’m not telling you shit, till you tell me what's wrong. Why does Scott want to call Deaton?”

Sighing Derek replied. “Your back is mottled.”

“Huh?”

Shaking his head the Alpha informed the boy. “Mottled Stiles, a pattern...Normally used to describe-”

“Cats.” The boy whispered when he suddenly realized where the Alpha had been going with that particular description. His eyes widened as he turned to look at Scott. “It's not time though...You guys said.-”

Scott nodded and tried to calm his friend. “I know, but think about it, Stiles. Calm down. Before my first shift, I was getting things from it, right? This might just be part of that.”

Stiles shook his head as he countered. “You got hearing, you got speed and strength not fucking cat patterns on your skin. How is this supposed to be helpful to me?”

Derek watched the boy freak out a moment before he commented. “It's not on your skin.”

Scott glared up at the other Alpha, but Derek ignored him. 

Stiles blinked before he frowned. “What do you mean its not on my skin? Did I grow a new appendage in my sleep?”

Rolling his eyes at the boy's snark Derek informed Stiles. “It's under your skin.”

Seeing the apparent confusion on the boys face, Derek reached out and lifted the boy's arm and pointed with his spare hand to the boy's veins. “Like that.”

“It's under my skin.” Stiles parroted the man’s earlier words.

Derek nodded before lowering the boy's wrist back down, Stiles took a shuddering breath before asking. “And the burning?”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t know. Is it still-”

Stiles shook his head. “No...It's tapered off...It's sore, more like a sunburn a couple of days after.”

The Alpha nodded. “It's most likely just a fluctuation of your body adapting to the change. No different than Scott’s own fluctuations to his wolf abilities.”

Stiles glared at the simple-minded response to what he’d just gone through. “So I get lava skin that itches? How the fuck is that fair.”

Derek smirked. “So long as it's not continuing, we don’t have a problem.”

Stiles was quick to state just how he felt about the Alpha’s opinion on that. “Don’t have a problem? Really? I want it to not do that again thank you very much.”

Scott’s hand tightened on Stiles' shoulder, gaining him the boy's attention before he could go on a ranting spree against Derek’s words. “Derek’s right, so long as it's stopped we can hold off calling Deaton or Chris.”

Stiles shook his head, but not for the reason the pack assumed. The teen was quick to mutter. “They probably wouldn’t even have a clue if you did...Which disturbs me on so many levels.”

Scott smirked. “We’ll get through this Stiles, now does your back still itch?”

Stiles shook his head. “No...It's fine.”

The boy's tone of voice told the pack he didn’t want his back touched again, he was clearly apprehensive about it all. Scott nodded and he and Isaac settled Stiles once more against the pillows. The human was frowning, deep in thought oblivious to the concerned looks the rest of the pack were giving him. Scott rubbed his friend's shoulder, hoping to offer some kind of a relief to whatever thoughts were plaguing the boy. It took a few minutes, but Stiles finally raised his head up and gave a half-hearted smile.

“I’m...Good. I’m okay.” Stiles knew his voice wasn’t nearly as strong as he would have liked, just as he knew that the wolves knew he was lying. He was eternally grateful when none of them called him out on it.

None of the pack had believed him, not when his heartbeat skipped but they were kind enough not to focus on that. Issac was the first to break the silence in the room. “You want breakfast?”

Stiles looked over to the teen before nodding his head. “Yeah...Sure.”

Issac gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile before he rose from the bed and headed towards the hallway. Stiles looked to Erica and Boyd before telling them. “Go have breakfast...You’ve got the second shift today.” Stiles joked in a depreciating voice which showed the pressure the teen was feeling from his situation.

They weren’t amused by his self-deprecating humor but chose not to argue with the boy at the moment. Instead, Erica grasped Boyd’s hand and headed out after Isaac. Once the Beta’s were gone did Stiles turn to the two Alphas. 

Stiles smirked a little sadly before commenting. “I’m not sure I can do this.”

Scott shook his head. “You can do this, we're not going anywhere.”

Stiles gave a jerky nod of his head unsure how else to make Scott understand just how freaked out he was about this new development. Instead, he tried to believe his friend about it at least for the moment. Stiles’ gaze flitting over to Derek when the older Alpha shifted before speaking.

“You don’t have a choice about doing this or not, but Scott is right, nothing bad is going to happen. You’ll adapt and we’ll be here.”

Stiles nodded once more, his head falling back against the pillows as he sighed and closed his eyes. He never caught the shared look between the two Alphas. A moment passed before Scott patted Stiles' leg, the boy made a small noise to show he was listening, but refused to open his eyes and face the world. 

“It's going to be okay.”

Stiles twisted his head to the side, facing Scott and opened his eyes. He stared at his longtime friend a moment. “I-I really hope your right man, cause this is- This is really scary.”

Scott nodded. “I know, but if you go bananas I can always tie you up in the basement and give you string to play with.”

Derek scowled at the back of Scott’s head, about to berate the Alpha not only for the stupid idea but because of what he’d just said when Stiles suddenly laughed. Derek stared at the boy's mirthful face before he caught on that the boy really did find the teen’s comment amusing.

“Yeah, you going to give me live mice to chase?”

Scott smirked. “ Of course, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?”

Stiles smirked back at him. “Pretty horrible, I mean I was ready to feed you rats and all.”

Scott gave a bark of a laugh. “Yeah, though you hadn’t quite figured out where you were going to keep me.”

Stiles hummed before admitting. “Yeah...No basement, no attic...I suppose I could have gotten a dog kennel or something.”

Scott snorted and dryly muttered. “Thanks.”

Stiles smirked. “Your the one who might be doping me with supernatural catnip in a couple of days man...No complaints.”

Scott chuckled. “Alright, alright...And I promise not to take pictures of you while your tripping balls.”

Stiles snorted not believing his friend in the slightest, mostly because he knew Scott so well and also because he knew that he’d do the same thing if given half the chance. Looking up to Derek, Stiles questioned. “He’s lying isn’t he?”

Derek smirked down at the boy in the bed, his mood obvious improving the longer they joked around. Not one to put a damper on things when it gave him an opportunity to make Scott flustered the Alpha replied. “I promise not to let him make you chase a laser pointer.”

Scott burst out laughing, Stiles snorted before joining him.

“That-That’s pretty mean.” The human chuckled, he glanced to Scott. “No laser pointers man.”

Scott held up his hands in a surrender pose. “Promise.”

“He’s lying.” Derek replied. 

Stiles' eyes widened a moment before he watched Scott turn and glare. “No, I wasn’t...You bastard, you're lying.”

Derek smirked before stating in a superior tone. “Now he doesn’t know who to believe.”

Scott blinked a few times as he realized that he’d fallen right into the other Alphas plan, then he glared at Derek’s apparent sense of humor.“Haha, he believes me. Don’t you Stiles?”

He turned to face his friend once more, only to see Stiles smirking at the pair of them. “I think that if I find any pictures, I will paralyze your ass and take great pleasure in embarrassing you to the fullest ability of my will.”

Scott sighed upon hearing the threat. “Fine-Fine, I won't use a laser pointer...And minimal pictures if you do go catnip high.”

Stiles still glared at Scott, looking to Derek the boy requested. “Please for the love of god, keep them in check. He’s going to be of no help if he finds whatever I’m doing amusing.”

Derek chuckled. “I promise I’ll keep them all in check.”

Stiles gave a sigh of relief, at least he could trust Derek to watch over things for him. The older Alpha wouldn’t have any inclination to make an ass out of Stiles. 

 

***************************** 

 

Breakfast was more relaxed after the Beta’s returned, Scott’s pep talk having settled Stiles into a more leveled out mood. He was still worried, that much was apparent to all of them, but Stiles wasn’t making comments that worried them. They settled back quickly into their routine which had Erica and Boyd taking over for Isaac. Giving the boy a chance to shower and do some random activities, most likely mundane in nature. They served a purpose though, no one wanted to get burned out, not with Stiles first shift coming soon. 

The two Beta’s settled on the bed with Stiles, talking about everything and nothing. Now that Stiles could actually turn his head, it made talking easier. Erica and Boyd could recline against one another like they were prone to doing without obscuring the boy's view of themselves. Eventually, they bickered about what to watch, though it was put to a quick end when Erica just got up and put on what she wanted. She smirked at Stiles in a clear way. ‘Get up and change it, I dare you’. His returning glare was fierce, but the boy didn’t say a word about it, Boyd just sighed at the pair. They settled in to watch the movie. It wasn’t until the movie was nearly over that Stiles suddenly hissed again, Erica and Boyd were immediately on high alert. The girl asking in a worried tone.

“Is it your back again?”

Stiles shook his head. “My leg...Left one.”

Boyd scooted down and pulled the pant leg up, sure enough, there was a patch of rolling skin beneath the human tissue. Mottled just like the boys back, Stiles gasped at the sight of it.

“Fuck...Oh, that is not cool.”

Erica nodded as she placed a hand on the boy's arm and tried to take the pain from him, she frowned staring down at their connection a moment before it dawned on her. It wasn’t working, She looked from Stiles to the boy's leg before back to Stiles. Stiles was biting his lip, his head thrown back as he tried to ride out the pain. Erica glanced at Boyd and shook her head doing her best not to freak out as she wordlessly told her boyfriend that something more serious was afoot. The boy frowned at that, placing his own hand on Stiles' ankle. Well away from the affected area and tried for himself. Nothing. 

The two Beta’s shared a look before Boyd got up and told her in a quiet tone. “I’ll go get the others.”

Erica nodded, turning to look back at Stiles as the boy grimaced in pain. “Its alright Stiles...Just hold on.”

The boy gave a jerky nod, Erica frowned at the pained expression marring the boy's face knowing that there was nothing that she could do to help Stiles while he rode it out. Glaring down at the mottled skin that seemed to twist and turn under the boy's human flesh, her head jerked up when the others came in after Boyd. 

She pointed before saying. “It's happening again.”

Scott frowned as he came closer, the same mottled pattern that had appeared on Stiles back was on the boy's leg now. Looking at Derek for some help, he saw the older Alpha glaring. Following his gaze he saw the reason for it, Stiles was biting his lip. His eyes scrunched closed, his face in a grimace of what had to be agony. 

Seeing the looks on the Alpha’s faces, Erica coughed, all eyes turned to her which had Erica showing them what she and Boyd had come across. Refusing to say it out loud for fear of making Stiles afraid, she placed a hand on the boy's leg and looked up at them. They frowned until she shook her head, Scott’s eyes widened as he caught onto what the Beta was saying. Looking to Derek the Alpha saw the scowl etched on the man’s feature, he didn’t like this any more than they did. It only took a moment longer before Stiles suddenly sighed, they all looked at him, the boy’s face slowly relaxed before he peeled open his eyes and licked his lip, the blood from biting it open being swept away in the process.

“That...Really burns.”

They nodded to him, unsure what else to say. Stiles for his part ignored them as he glanced down to his leg, The teen frowned at the sight of it. The mottled pattern was no longer shifting around, it was stagnant under his human skin.

“Huh.”

“What?” Scott asked in a worried tone.

Looking up to the Alpha Stiles replied. “It stopped moving.”

The group looked down at the boy's leg before back at him.

“Do you think that has to do with why it hurts?” Issac questioned. 

Stiles looked to the Beta before shaking his head. “I don’t know...Maybe. It aches now like my back did.”

“And your back?” Derek questioned.

Stiles shook his head at the Alpha. “Feels fine.”

Derek frowned but nodded to the boy. It seemed that the area’s being affected by this change wasn’t permanent, the pain dissipated after the mottling settled. Derek looked down to the pattern beneath the boy's skin. That didn’t explain why they couldn’t take his pain, that unsettled Derek in ways he couldn’t verbalize to the rest of the pack. He didn’t want to worry them or make Stiles any more freaked out than he already was. Derek could only hope that this phenomenon was as temporary as the boy's fleeting pain. That once Stiles was done adapting to his new form, he would be reachable by their abilities once more.

It was Scott who broke the other Alpha’s silent musings. “Should we call Deaton?”

Derek glanced over to him before shaking his head. “No...There’s likely nothing to be done.”

Scott frowned. “But you don’t know that.”

Derek pointed towards Stiles' leg. “That pattern isn’t some bruise Scott, it matches the picture of a Bastili’s coat. It's patterning.”

Scott glanced down to his friend's leg. 

“So its what my...Other skin? That’s gross.”

Derek smirked at Stiles when the teen made a disgusted face. “I don’t know, but chances are that if it's appearing like that, that it has everything to do with your change.”

Stiles huffed. “Yeah well, does anything explain why it burns?”

Derek shook his head. “It could be like the fever with the bite, your body is reacting to the change in your blood.”

Stiles gave him a look before sighing. “I’d rather have a fever than that.”

Derek smirked at the boy's petulant tone, he couldn’t blame him. Besides the fever, there really wasn’t any pain when someone took the bite. Stiles own change, however, was beginning to worry the Alpha, how painful would it be in the end? Was Deaton wrong about Stiles body accepting the Bastili venom? Sighing the Alpha told the pack.“Keep an eye on him, if this keeps happening then we might have to re-evaluate when his first shift might be.”

Looking over to Scott he informed his fellow Alpha. “If we’ve still got some morphine prepped, you might want to have it on stand by.”

Stiles frowned as he watched Scott nod.

“I don’t want drugs.”

The wolves looked at him in surprise.

“Stiles, you were in pain.” Erica mentioned like it wasn’t obvious. 

The boy nodded his head. “Yeah I was, but being dopped to the gills isn’t going to help things. Not really, besides if it gets worse than that and I can't take it anymore one of you-”

“We can't.” Derek said in a distraught tone when he knew where the boy's train of thought was headed.

Stiles looked at him funny. “What do you mean you cant?”

Sighing Derek replied. “Erica and Boyd both tried while you were experiencing whatever that was, they couldn’t take the pain from you. There was no reaction.”

Stiles' eyes widened at that, he looked over to the two Beta’s seeking some confirmation or denial to what Derek was saying. They both nodded. Stiles took a shuddering breath before nodding his head, twisting to look at Derek and Scott the boy said in a raspy voice. “Yeah...Okay...Yeah. Morphine on stand by.”

Scott nodded slowly at his friend's decision, it was clear that Stiles was freaking out about this new piece of information. Scott walked over to the leftover supplies his mother had left them and sorted through things. Finding the syringes that she had prepped with pain killers, he set them on the dresser before informing the pack.

“There’s three left. If it gets bad, just give him one and we’ll work out time and what not.”

Taking a shallow swallow, Scott continued. “Do you need me to show you how?” They all shook their heads.“If your sure, he doesn’t have a port anymore so you have to find a vein.”

They nodded. 

Sighing Scott walked back over to Stiles and gave him a weary smile. “You just have to cause trouble don’t you?”

Stiles smirked. “Mischief.”

Scott smirked, he was sure that he was the only one who knew about Stiles nickname that his mother had given him. Just as he was sure that he was the only one who knew Stiles real name, not that he could pronounce it though. Shaking his head at his friend's weirdness Scott replied. “Mischief.”

Stiles smirked at him, looking over to Erica and Boyd Stiles replied in a somewhat haughty tone.

“Well, at least I didn’t have to suffer through the rest of that god awful movie.”

Erica frowned before looking over, sure enough, the credits were rolling on the film she’d forced them all to watch. She glared back at Stiles who smirked at her. 

“You’d prefer burning pain to my movie choice?” She asked incredulously. 

Stiles rebutted. “Not sure which one hurts worse to tell you the truth...Though with the leg thing I’ll get morphine...Your movie choices, not so much.”

Erica snorted at him, the others chuckling at the boy's response, Scott patted Stiles on the arm before speaking to him. “Try to take it easy?”

Stiles snorted back at him, quickly snarking. “Yeah, cause I just ran a half marathon.”

Scott sighed at his friend's sarcastic reply.

“He’s got a point.”  Isaac muttered. 

Stiles grinned at the Beta. “At least someone gets it.”

Scott glared down at him, but Stiles ignored it in favor of telling Isaac. “Grab control over the laptop while you can. I beg of you.”

Issac smirked and nodded, turning and quickly getting back to the main menu to find something more to the boy's tastes.

Erica huffed. “Fine, see if I watch movies with you again.”

Stiles smirked at the girl's petulant response, knowing full well that the girl would be more than happy to join them for any other movie nights they held. “We both know you will.”

She pursed her lips at him, torn between being disgruntled by his calling her bluff or amused. Seeing that things were slowly going back to normal, Derek nudged Scott and headed for the door. Scott smirked at Stiles when the boy raised a brow at him, obviously wondering what that was about.

“Don’t worry about it alright? We’ll sort this out.”

Stiles nodded his head, though it wasn’t nearly as convincing as it should have been.  He was unable to focus on it for too long before he was distracted by Isaac climbing back up beside him, Scott gave the Beta an appreciative look before making his escape.

 

*********

 

Scott wasn’t surprised when he found Derek standing before the giant windows, it seemed to be the older Alpha’s go-to place when he was thinking about something. Idly Scott had to force himself not to laugh as he could also remember Stiles referring it to his brooding place, he knew Derek wouldn’t find the humor in that so he got to what had brought them there. 

“So what do we do?”

“We just have to watch it, if it keeps happening like I think it will. It's just a precursor to what's going to happen soon.”

“He’s in pain though.”

Derek nodded his head, not bothering to turn to face Scott as he continued talking. “I know, our inability to take his pain concerns me more than the actual pain Scott. The pain doesn’t appear to stick around and we have the morphine if he needs it, but our abilities no longer working on him...That worries me.”

Scott stepped up beside Derek, looking at the Alpha who refused to look at him. “What do you think it means though? Is it permanent? Or just for now?”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t know. If it is permanent...It might signal that our species aren’t compatible. Stiles might be right about him lashing out at us.” Derek finally looked at Scott. “If that happens, we’ll have to subdue him and figure out what to do from there. Until he learns to control the shift, he could be a risk to the pack...And to others.”

Scott swallowed at the Alpha’s subliminal words, not afraid to speak them himself Scott rasped. “Like my mom and his dad.”

Derek nodded. Scott cursed under his breath and looked at the floor.

“It's not set in stone Scott, it's just a possibility.”

The teen nodded his head. “I know, but you’ve got a point. Us not being able to take his pain, that’s not normal. We can take the pain from anyone and anything as far as I know.”

Derek sighed. “Perhaps Bastili are the one thing we cant.”

“But why? What makes them different?”

Derek shook his head, he didn’t have any answers for the teen let alone for himself. “I don’t know...Maybe its some sort of defense mechanism. Maybe we have to be considered his pride before it’ll work. Who knows Scott. All we can do right now is watch him, keep him comfortable while this...Change happens. And make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“He’d never forgive himself if he did.”

Derek knew that they all knew that. “We're not going to let that happen.”

Scott nodded his head a few times as if he needed to hear those words to help enforce them in his own head. “I know, I just hope the pain stops...I-I can't keep seeing him hurt like this and not be able to help.”

Derek knew what the teen meant. It was torture to not be able to help a pack mate, to be useless as another suffered. Sighing Derek reached out and put his hand on Scott’s shoulder, getting the boy to look back up at him.

“If Stiles can take the pain than we can handle staying beside him. We don’t abandon pack.”

 

**************************** 

 

It was just after dinner that the pack found themselves all visiting in Stiles room once more, talking animatedly about school.

“I’m just glad that its summer break and I won't have to deal with missing any school while this shit gets sorted out.”

Scott glared at him. “Lucky bastard.”

Stiles smirked at him, not the least bit repentant for what his friend had gone through. “ I know right? Oh oh my god, Scott.”

Scott sat up, fear about to wrap around his heart when Stiles grinned widely at him, obviously not in pain but in excitement. “Jackson.”

Tilting his head Scott shook his head. “What about him?”

“Dude, lacrosse...Think about it, after you were bitten you made the front line and creamed his higher than mighty ass.”

Scott smirked at his friend easily catching onto what he was saying. “You’re going to show off aren’t you?”

Stiles grinned from ear to ear. “Ten bucks says he thinks I’m on steroids.”

Scott rolled his eyes, well aware of what the jock had thought about him at that time. 

“Why?” Issac was prompted to ask. “Why would Jackson assume you’re on steroids?” 

Stiles twisted around and said. “Cause that’s what he thought happened to Scott. You should have heard that conversation man...So awkward, Scott didn’t even know what the hel-mph”

“Enough talking.” Scott muttered as he glared at his friend's amused eyes, his hand gently placed over Stiles' mouth. The others chuckled at the pair, Scott suddenly grimaced and pulled his hand back.

“Oh gross.”

The pack were confused until Stiles piped up. “Don’t put your hand over my mouth and I won't lick you.”

They snorted at the boy as Scott wiped his hand off on his pants.

“What are you two?” Erica questioned. 

Stiles smirked at her. “He started it.”

“Well, that’s a mature argument.” Issac muttered in an amused fashion. 

Stiles opened his mouth to offer up a rebuttal when he suddenly screamed. They all tensed, rising to their feet as Stiles clamped his mouth shut, biting into his lip as he threw his head and back whined through his locked jaw.

“Where Stiles?!”

Stiles shook his head, unable to take the time or energy to tell his friend exactly where the agony was spouting from. The pack waited anxiously for the pain to ebb or for something to change, but it didn’t. Stiles kept biting his lip, the scent of the boy's blood agitating the already on edge wolves around him as the teen's teeth ripped into his own skin. Stiles kept making half choked noises as he tried to not scream aloud, with nothing changing and the boy still writhing with what little movement he had, a decision was made. A moment later Stiles' arm was being moved and a prick was felt by the teen shortly before warmth filtered into him, slowly the pain ebbed as the warmth buried it. Stiles’ neck untensed as his head rolled a bit as the pain medication took hold over the various waves of agonizing pain.

“Stiles...Come on man...Talk to us.”

Stiles groaned, peeling his eyes open he caught sight of the worried faces of the pack. Derek was tossing a needle away and inwardly Stiles was forever grateful for the Alpha’s quick thinking.

“Stiles?” His eyes rolled over towards Scott, the boy's face was pinched, worry evident. “Where is it?”

Stiles sluggish brain took too long to process what he was being asked, but finally, he licked his lips, the coppery taste of his own blood ignored as he whispered. “Hip.”

Scott nodded his hands darting to check on his friend only being stopped from looking by Derek. The older man having grabbed Scott’s wrist to stop him, the Alpha shook his head at the frantic boy.

“There’s nothing you can do, just leave it alone.”

Scott looked pained as he heard the words, but he slumped with a defeated nod. Derek turned his attention towards Stiles.

“Did the morphine stop the pain?”

Stiles blinked at the Alpha a moment before he said in a slurry tone. “M-Most of it”

Derek’s brow pinched together as Scott looked forlornly at his friend.

“You can still feel it?”

Stiles gave a weak nod. “Ye-Yeah.”

The werewolf shook his head distraught to know that the morphine Derek had given the teen hadn’t taken all the boys pain away. Feeling guilty for being unable to help, the teen apologized. “I’m sorry man, if-if I could help I would.”

Stiles gave a wary smile. “I know.” Stiles' voice was fading as the morphine made him drowsy. The warmth of the drugs was lulling him to sleep, the amount of pain he was still feeling nothing compared to the pull of the drugs ordering him to rest. Stiles blinked owlishly, longer and longer periods between when his eyes were open or closed.

Scott gave his friend a small pained smile, rubbing Stiles shoulder as he spoke. “Go to sleep man. It's okay.”

Stiles made a small noise before his eyes slid shut and stayed that way, Scott swallowed reflexively as he watched his friend for only a moment longer before he suddenly stormed out of the room. The Beta’s shifted nervously as the boy fled. It wasn’t like him. Derek sighed as he watched Scott flee the room, he couldn’t blame the other Alpha for reacting like he was. Out of all of them, Scott knew Stiles the best, it had to be harder on him than it was on the rest of the pack to see the other teen like he was now.

“He’ll be okay.”

“Which one?” Erica asked in a bare whisper.

Derek raised his head to look at her, Erica stared back at him with trepidation in her eyes. “Both.”

Erica nodded her head before looking towards Stiles. “I-I never want to hear him scream like that again.”

The others knew what she meant without even having to ask, it was the same pain filled scream they’d heard in the woods the day they had been frantically searching for the boy. It brought to mind the feeling of being too late, that they couldn’t do anything for their pack mate and that he was suffering just beyond their reach. Boyd wrapped his arms around Erica, placing his chin on the top of her head. Issac slowly reached out and felt Stiles arm. Derek watched the boy curious as to what he was doing, but a moment later Isaac sighed and shook his head.

“Nothing.”

Derek didn’t have to ask what he meant, the teen had been trying to help Stiles by seeing if he was in pain. The boys answer to his sought out question was frustrating for the group, but none said anything about the boys failed attempts to help. The Beta was cautious as he climbed onto the bed with Stiles, mindful of his own body in relation to the human’s paralyzed form. Isaac looked to Stiles' hip, obviously curious as to what it looked like.

Derek frowned at the Beta, now wasn’t the time for idle curiosity. “Isaac.”

The boy looked up at him, a simple shake of his head had Isaac laying his head down, looking to Stiles, Derek saw the residual pain on the boys face. Even while under the influence of morphine, traces of the pain remained etched on his features.

Sighing the Alpha stood and told the pack. “I’m going to go find Scott, stay with him.”

It was a pointless order as Derek knew they weren’t about to leave Stiles on his own, but he still felt the necessity to enforce it. They nodded to him and without further delay, Derek went in search of his fellow Alpha.

 

******************************** 

 

Derek was mildly surprised when he discovered that Scott wasn’t inside the loft as he’d assumed that Scott had simply stormed off into the living room. Sighing Derek headed for the door and made his way outside, sniffing the air he discovered the trail of the other Alpha easily enough. Derek took his time as he walked, figuring his delay would give the teen some time to collect himself. He found Scott hunched over himself, sitting at the base of a tree. Derek knelt down before the other Alpha and stared at him a moment. Scott refused to meet his eyes, he was staring into the dirt.

“Scott.”

The boy sighed but looked up. “I’m sorry.”

Derek shook his head. “It's fine, you were overwhelmed by what was happening.”

Scott gave a weary nod before he said. “How can morphine not be enough?”

“I don’t know, but he was comfortable enough Scott, he wasn’t screaming or writhing about anymore.”

Scott swallowed thickly both at what Derek had just said as much as what he was about to admit. “I-I thought he was dying.”

Derek’s heart skipped a beat at the boy's admission. “Why?”

“That-That scream...And he couldn’t tell me what was wrong, I mean I knew...I knew what was wrong, but he couldn’t even tell me where.” The teen shook his head as if that would help clear his own thoughts, rectify the belief that his friend had been dying in front of his very eyes.

Derek gave the boy a look of understanding. “He was in pain Scott. Stiles was trying to breathe through it, to ride it out. None of us knew how long it was going to last.”

Scott gave a bark of humorless laughter. “You had to give him morphine cause I was too damn scared to move.”

Derek frowned at the Alpha. “You have every right to be scared Scott, we all are.”

The boys shook his head. “But you did something.”

Derek sighed when he realized what the real issue was. “I did, but just because I was the one to give him the morphine doesn’t make my presence more important than the rest of you. I was just as shocked by it as you were, I just snapped out of it faster when I realized he wasn’t calming down.”

“Is-Do you think it's going to keep doing that? Keep getting worse? Lasting longer and longer?”

Derek frowned, he honestly hadn’t considered such a thing, but now that he thought about it...It was a rather horrifying notion. “I hope not.” He finally settled with.

Scott hunched over himself some more. “I’ll call my mom...She can bring us some more morphine. If-If this keeps happening he’s going to need more.”

Derek didn’t comment on the boy's beliefs, it wasn’t something that needed arguing about. It was simply a fact, instead, the Alpha suggested. “Come back to the loft, the others are worried about you.”

Scott gave a short bark of laughter. “They should be worried about Stiles.”

“They are Scott, but he’s sleeping right now and you're the one that left, you ran and that’s not something they’re used to seeing you do. It's unsettled them, we need to go back.”

Scott looked up at Derek, saying nothing for the longest moment before he finally asked. “How can you be so calm?”

Derek stared back at the younger Alpha a moment unsure initially how he wanted to answer that, ultimately he took a breath and admitted. “I’m not.” Scott snorted, but Derek cut the teen off. “I’m not Scott, I’m just better at hiding it.” Derek took a shallow breath, unsure if he was truly ready to go down this road,   he did. “ I’m just as scared as the rest of you. I’m scared this could kill him, that he’ll lose himself and we won't have a clue how to help him. We don’t have all the answers and there’s no one to really turn to for more. Were walking blind here, it's terrifying and I hate it.”

Scott’s eyes widened at that, Derek never revealed things like that. Derek ignored the teen’s shocked look, instead choosing to say. “You have to remember, if we freak out, the Beta’s will too. If we're all so consumed with ourselves we won't be able to help Stiles, he needs us to focus right now.”

Scott nodded his head. “I know...I know. Okay.” Scott nodded his head once more, preparing to rise from the tree where he had slouched himself upon.

Derek smirked at the teen and stood back up when it seemed that Scott was ready to head back, holding out a hand to offer him help. Scott took it and was hoisted back to his feet. Not a word was spared between them about Scott running off from the rest of the pack as they twisted about and made their way back to the loft.

“Call your mom in case we need more morphine, we want to be as prepared for this as we can be.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to run out...I know he hates being doped up, but its better than...That.”

Derek made a noise of agreement as they made their way through the door, the two Alpha’s paused in the loft space. Derek noticed just how tensed the other wolf was and in a split second decision suggested in a not so suggestive tone. “Scott, go get some sleep.”

The teen turned to him, eyes wide. “Wha-”

“You need to sleep, I know you haven’t had an easy time doing it. I hear you pacing at night.” Scott flushed a bit upon hearing that he’d been found out, Derek shook his head. “You’re obviously stressed by all of this and no one can blame you for that. I and the others can watch over him for a bit. Go get some rest.” Scott made to shake his head, to refuse outright. Derek held his ground though. “Go.”

Scott frowned at his fellow Alpha, his eyes flashing red. Derek didn’t take it as a threat, instead pointing towards the couch.

“Sleep if you can, rest if you cant. Stiles is sleeping at the moment, the rest of us should get some sleep if we can.”

Scott shook his head. “No someone needs to-”

“I’ll stay awake, I’ll make sure nothing happens.”

Scott deflated under the promise, with no other means to offer some kind of argument he nodded. “Alright...Alright, but promise me you’ll come to get me if-”

“I will come to get you if we need you, now go to sleep.”

Scott slunked off towards the couch. Assured that the teen was doing as he ordered at least for now, Derek turned and headed down the hallway. Now to deal with the Beta’s.

 

***************************** 

 

After the two Alpha’s left, the Beta’s settled in around Stiles. Issac took up one side, while Erica and Boyd took up the other. They each had a hand on the boy in some manner. Issac was practically plastered to the boy's side, his hand also resting on top of Stiles own. Erica was between Stiles and Boyd, her hand settled on the boy's other arm as she rested. Boyd’s hand was above his head, gently touching the top of Stiles' head as the boy slept. No one said anything for the longest time as the absence of even one of their Alpha’s unnerved them, especially after what had just happened.

Finally, Erica got the nerve to speak. “Issac?”

“Hmm?”

Swallowing Erica asked in a bare whisper. “Will you look?”

Issac raised himself up to stare over the prone form they were guarding. “Look?”

Erica nodded as she stared back at her packmate. “His hip.”

Issac bit his lip a moment before stating. “Derek didn’t want me too.”

“He was afraid you’d wake Stiles or that he’d still be in pain...He’s been asleep a while now though.” Erica glanced towards Stiles, true enough the teen showed no indication to hearing them. He was out cold, the drugs having pulled him under.

Issac nodded his head, he was just as curious as her and having Erica voice her opinion gave him the courage to do what he’d been wanting to since the ‘attack’ ended. “Okay, I’ll look...Uh, I’m guessing you don’t want to see.” He motioned to below the boy's navel. 

She smirked and closed her eyes.

Isaac chuckled at the girl's absolute refusal to chance to see any part of Stiles’ body. “Okay then...Let me look.”

Erica made a noise in the affirmative. Issac slowly and gently peeled back the sweat pants on Stiles, lowering them down one side of the boys hip. Nothing. Sighing he went for the other side.

“Well?”

Snorting at the girl's impatience Isaac countered. “Would you wait a minute, it wasn’t on that side.”

“Oh..Okay.”

Swallowing Isaac slowly peeled down the sweat pants down Stiles other hip and he cursed.

“What...What's wrong?”

Erica’s voice climbed in urgency. She kept her eyes closed though she was finding it hard not to give in and just look. Wanting to give Stiles some form of modesty Erica fought the urge to just look at whatever the ‘attack’ had bestowed upon Stiles. 

“Its...It's just big.”

“Big?”

“Yeah...Larger than his leg one, uh...Size of a grapefruit.”

Erica gasped. The one on the boy's leg was only the size of a golf ball, no wonder this one had hurt so much. Boyd was frowning up at the ceiling, he hadn’t bothered to look, wanting to spare his pack mate the embarrassment as well as avoid seeing the spreading violation of his body. Because that was what this was to him, some violating force causing his pack mate harm. 

Issac slowly raised the sweat pants back up Stiles body before settling down beside the prone teen again. “You can look, he’s decent.”

Erica’s eyes came open in an instant, quickly seeking out the blonde Beta. “God...If they keep getting bigger and-”

“I know.” Issac muttered sourly. 

If the size of the marks had anything to do with the amount of pain they were causing Stiles then the boy was in for a world of pain and suffering as the marks potential growth. It was this that had the Beta’s quiet once more. Each pondering what was happening to Stiles, what they could possibly do to help the boy. No one found any answers but they collectively heard when their Alpha’s returned and the group sighed in relief. Likewise, they heard Derek ordering Scott to get some rest. The argument was brief, but they could all empathize with Scott, no one wanted to leave Stiles side, not now. 

When Derek walked into the room and saw them all surrounding Stiles he gave them a pleased nod. He settled down at the foot of the bed, staring up at the boy who slept on oblivious to what was going on around him. Issac swallowed nervously, he felt that Derek needed to know about what he’d found, but he also didn’t want to upset the Alpha who had told him to leave Stiles alone in the first place.

Knowing he couldn’t keep it to himself, Isaac resigned himself to whatever happened. “Derek.”

The Alpha glanced over to him, patiently waiting for the Beta to speak once more.

“His hip.”

Derek frowned at Isaac. “What about it?”

“I looked while you went to talk with Scott.”

The frown turned into a full-fledged scowl, but before the Alpha could berate the boy Erica chimed in. “I asked him to look...I didn’t want to-To embarrass Stiles so I asked Isaac to look.”

Derek’s unimpressed scowl shifted towards her. “I told Isaac to leave him be, I didn’t think I would need to extend that to all of you.”  He gave them each a pointed look. 

Issac lowered his eyes as he spoke. “It's big.”

Derek raised a brow at the boy's comment when Isaac didn’t speak again, Derek asked. “How big?”

“The one on his leg is only the size of a golf ball and it hurt him so badly...His hip, its like the size of a grapefruit Derek...If they keep getting bigger and more painful.”

Derek nodded his head as the distraught Beta trailed off, there wasn’t much he could do to assuage their fears but he used what little information he had to try. “Scott’s going to call his mother for more morphine, we’ll keep Stiles as comfortable as possible until this passes.”

“Will it?” Boyd questioned curiously. 

Derek glanced to the Beta. “I hope so...Chances are this is all some sort of adaptation his body has to undergo.”

“And if it's not?” Issac asked warily. 

“We're going to assume it is.” Derek told him seriously. 

Issac caught onto the man's tone and wisely nodded. They were all under stress, there was no reason to make it worse by posing ‘what if’s’ about what could happen.

Derek looked once more back at Stiles. “How’s he been?”

“Sleeping soundly. No sign of him being in pain, no noises. Just out like a light.” Erica chimed in as she tilted her head back to peer at Stiles lax face.

“Good. The rest should help.”

Erica hummed at that as she gazed at her pack mate. The group settled in for the night, no one was eager to fall to sleep. Each wanting to stay awake if there was even a small chance of Stiles waking, finally, Derek had to tell them all the same thing that he’d told Scott only a few minutes before.

“Go to sleep. I already promised Scott I’d stay awake, nothings going to happen to him.”

The Beta’s shifted into more comfortable positions, one by one slowly giving into their need for sleep after such a stressful day. Derek watched over them, once he was sure they were all asleep did he place his hand on Stiles' leg and focused. Not even a twinge of pain came to him, he couldn’t sense the boy at all. Sighing Derek let his hand drop as he stared up at the sleeping form.

‘You’re going to be okay Stiles, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’

 


	15. Back to his old tricks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles is still in the thick of his transformation into a Bastili, but he's feeling a bit better so what better to do than get up to his old tricks?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew these long chapters are killing me, editing 10k in a day...I must be crazy lol. Still, I'm glad to do it and we're getting close to being halfway through the fic which means things are going to heat up fast! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, leave a comment or kudo if you do.

Stiles return to the land of the living was slow. He was groggy and his body wasn’t moving when he told it too, it took longer than it should of for his brain to boot back into enough awareness to inform him ‘duh your paralyzed’. Once that happened some of the confusion passed, he shifted his head to the side and sighed. A moment later there was a gentle hand on his arm, it was warm, nice and best of all it wasn’t shaking him to get him to wake up faster. 

There was a voice though, a soft whisper of encouragement.  Stiles wanted to heed it, to open his eyes and see what he was sure were his concerned friends. His brain however, was happy enough to lounge about in the hazy fog left over from the morphine he’d been given. The voice stopped, but the hand remained and as the fog slowly dissipated enough for him to make some sense of what had been said to him, he also became aware of a distant burning. The first thought was that it sucked that his hip was still on fire, but that quickly passed when Stiles realized that it wasn’t his hip that was burning. It was his shoulder. 

The teen let out another sigh, momentarily glad that the burning seemed to be going away instead of increasing in severity, Stiles wasn’t sure if that was because of the morphine or because whatever hellish cat skin he was growing was nearly done appearing. Either way, he didn’t care, it was just nice to no longer be screaming in pain. The hand on his arm was gently rubbing the appendage and it idly reminded him of his mother, she used to do that to him when he was sick. A small smile came to his lips at the thought.

Stiles blinked open his eyes, his mind wanting to know who was touching him like that, who was trying to soothe him from whatever perceived pain he was supposed to be suffering. Granted the burning wasn’t great, but it was fading. His eyes widened a bit when he realized it was Derek, the Alpha wasn’t looking at him though. 

Derek was reading, one hand balancing the book open on his knee, flipping through it after a few minutes of reading with his thumb. His other hand preoccupied with Stiles own arm, Stiles’ brain froze for a moment before he smiled. It was rare for Derek to show this side of him and Stiles wasn’t going to be an ass about it, otherwise he might not get this close to the Alpha again. Knowing the only way to make this not as awkward as possible was to announce his presence he sighed, Derek’s eyes flitted up to him and his hand froze in place on his arm. Before the seemingly scared Alpha could retract his arm or sputter some lame ass excuse that Stiles knew was coming, the human muttered in a groggy tone.

“My shoulder burns.”

Stiles knew giving the man something else to focus on besides being caught would help things. It did. Derek frowned before he leaned forward. Letting his book slide to the floor forgotten, his hand froze at the neckline of Stiles shirt. Staring into the boy's eyes as if asking permission.

“Wrong shoulder.” Stiles gave a small smile. 

Derek nodded before moving over to lean across Stiles, he gently moved the shirt aside and the Alpha’s frown more then told Stiles what he already knew.

“How big is it? It feels...Big.”

Derek glanced at him from where he was leaning across the teen. “You can feel how big they are?”

Stiles tilted his head. “Pain radiates...But yeah I guess so.”

Derek nodded his head before commenting. “About the same size as the one on your hip.”

Stiles blushed a bit at that, he hadn’t figured that anyone would actually look at that. Then again Stiles had to remind himself that his friends were nosy. “You looked at my hip?”

Derek smirked at the blushing boy. “No, Isaac did, no one else looked. He told me how big it was, how is the pain?”

Sighing about the fact that he was somehow undressed against his will for the sake of his curious friend, Stiles responded to Derek’s question. “ Fading...I think the worst of it happened while I was out.”

Derek seemed pleased with that. “You didn’t feel anything while you were asleep?”

Stiles shook his head. “No.”

Derek pulled back to sit beside Stiles on the bed, no longer leaning over him to inspect the mottled flesh under Stiles skin. Stiles smiled up at Derek. “So...Do I look like a leopard cause if I keep getting spots-”

Derek smirked. “Not quite.”

Stiles chuckled. “Good...You notice any others?”

Derek shook his head. “No, but besides your arms, you're pretty much covered by clothing.”

Stiles nodded his head, the Alpha had a point there. Unless his friends were willing to start undressing him to slake their curiosity, which he prayed they wouldn’t do, then there was little chance of anyone knowing if more had shown up.

“Yeah, guess so...Where’s everybody else?”

“They went for a run.”

Stiles tilted his head a bit before stating the obvious. “You didn’t go with them.”

Derek frowned. “No.”

“Why not?”

Sighing Derek explained. “Someone needed to stay with you Stiles, besides I’m fine.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the Alpha’s lame attempt to say that he was above being stressed out. “Yeah totally fine, how long was I out for Mr. Fine?”

Derek scowled at the boy for a moment before he finally answered. “Nearly fourteen hours.”

Stiles' eyes widened. “Are you shitting me?”

Derek shook his head “No, the morphine would have worn off hours ago, we never gave you more, but you didn’t wake up. The pack was getting edgy so I sent them out.”

Stiles nodded dumbly to what the Alpha had to say, made sense why Derek had done that. Scott and the others were probably thinking that he was in a coma or something. “Well uh, I guess that’s good? I mean I haven't been in any pain or nothing.” Derek was about to nod when his head jerked to the side, Stiles smiled before asking. “How many seconds before Scott’s here?”

Derek smirked, the corners of his mouth turning up just so as he heard Stiles and the pack returning. Looking back to the boy he replied. “Soon enough, they’ll be glad to see your awake at last.”

Stiles smirked. “Had to get my beauty sleep.”

Derek snorted, a moment later and the door was coming open. 

Stiles smiled at the pack as they came inside. “Hey, have a good run?”

They all sighed in relief at the sight of him, not missing a beat Stiles turned to Derek.

“I think they missed me or something. Weird right?”

Derek’s lips twitched as if he was fighting to not smile. “Very.” He muttered back. 

Stiles was grinning as he turned his attention back to the rest of the pack, Scott pushed through the Betas and asked. “How are you?”

“Fine...Well, my shoulder was doing the crazy cat thing again, but not bad. Woke up with it almost done so it was more the sunburny type.”

Scott frowned. “It didn’t wake you up when it started?”

Stiles shook his head. “Nope, nothing.”

Although it seemed to relieve Scott, it also made him frown. Stiles ignored his friend's worried look, instead choosing to ask the Betas. “So Isaac, I’m not going to find any incriminating photos of myself online are I?” The boy frowned confused, Derek snorted at Stiles quickly catching onto what the teen was doing. 

“What do you mean?” Erica asked just as confused as her pack mates. 

Stiles gave a sigh before stating. “Derek told me that Isaac copped a feel while I was out in la la land.”

Issac colored at that before he shook his head. “No man-”

“So you didn’t look?” Stiles knew he was baiting the kid, but it was way too much fun to stop. 

Issac sputtered as he said. “Well yeah, I-”

“So you did look?”

“Yeah.”

“So you pulled my pants down and touched me.”

Issac was shaking his head back and forth when he realized where this particular line of questioning was going. “No no, it wasn’t like that...I was just checking to see if-”

Stiles had to hide the grin that threatened to spill forth, quickly interrupting Isaac. “Its okay Isaac...I understand.” Issac sighed in obvious relief.  Stiles smirked when the Beta let his guard down. “Was it good for you? I didn’t feel much myself?”

Issac’s eyes widened as Stiles started laughing, Scott was snorting into his hand even as the other Beta’s laughed at what Isaac had inadvertently walked into. Derek sighed at the boy’s apparent glee at torturing the Beta.

Isaac colored even more before he muttered. “I liked you better asleep.”

“Oh, kinky...Didn’t know you were in-”

“Oh god shut up!” Issac cried.

Stiles laughed at the distressed look on the boys face. “Alright alright, I won't tease you. How’d it look though? Like my leg?”

Issac was wary of answering for a moment, figuring it was another trap. When it appeared to be safe to answer he nodded. “Yeah, just bigger. Size of a grapefruit.”

Stiles sighed as he looked at Derek. “Shoulders the same right?”

Derek nodded. “Just about.”

Stiles shook his head as he muttered. “This is just to crazy man...Do you think it's like a second layer of skin or something? Like if I got cut, would I bleed or not?”

The others frowned at the boy's question, but Scott was the one to call out. “Don’t know, don’t care, no one is testing that.” The others nodded backing up the Alpha’s decision. 

Stiles snorted at the overly defensive pack. “Fine, it's not like I wouldn’t heal though.”

Scott's glower intensified. “You’re in enough pain right now and you don’t heal like us Stiles.”

The boy nodded a few times when his friend continued to be agitated. “Alright, alright. Forget I said anything.”

Scott settled down a few moments later, he looked to Derek and informed him. “The run helped.”

“Good.”

“You should go for one.”

Derek looked back at Stiles, the boy nodded to him. “Go on Sourwolf. Get some pent up energy out.”

He scowled at the nickname, but finally responded to the boy's suggestion.“Yeah, maybe I will.”

Stiles grinned. He felt bad that they were all being kept inside to take care of him, if he could persuade them to take breaks, to take care of themselves it was well worth the arguments. Stiles knew Derek and Scott were the ones who would put up the most fight, but Stiles had nowhere to go and all the time in the world to argue. Luckily it seemed like Derek was actually considering a run, so Stiles left it be.

 

**********

 

Derek did end up going on that run, something which made Stiles feel better. It was his fault after all that they were being kept inside, forced to watch over him. The pack had settled in around him, Scott helping to feed Stiles while they all talked. The boy was chewing as he made a noise to agree with Erica when Scott’s phone went off. Stiles twisted his head and watched as Scott answered it.

“Hello?”

“Oh hello, sir.”

Stiles' eyes widened and he shook his head back and forth already knowing what was most likely going to take place if he didn’t intercede. Scott nodded to him, instantly calming Stiles. Scott handed the plate to Isaac to continue feeding Stiles while he dealt with the sheriff. 

“Uh no sir, sorry. He’s doing well though.”

Stiles shook his head as he stared into his lap. He hated lying to his father, but it was necessary at the moment. Stiles could already imagine the lecture he was going to get after this.

“Umm...Hold on.” Scott put the phone down and Stiles looked up at him confused. “He wants to come to see you.”

Stiles shook his head before whispering. “Are you nuts, he can't see me.”

Scott gave him a ‘what do I do’ look, Stiles just glared at him. 

Sighing Erica walked over and stole the phone, both Scott and Stiles stared at her in shock as she spoke confidently. “Hello, sheriff? Yes its Erica, Stiles is doing good...Sorry about Scott he hasn’t gotten much sleep lately and is a little scattered brained. Mmmhmm...Yeah.”

Stiles and Scott glanced to each other before looking back at Erica, the werewolf was perfectly calm as she talked on the phone. “No, I know. I understand sir, I’m sure he’d like that...It's just that trying some of Deaton's rituals to help him heal up and if you come over it might contaminate it. No, it's not going to hurt him, it's safe, we're just trying to do what we can to help him. Yes...I know...Good, thank you. We’ll let you know.”

She clicked off the phone tossed it Scott and walked effortlessly over to Boyd with a smirk on her face. The pack just stared at her in shock.

Stiles was the one to break the silence. “Ritual?”

She smirked back at him. “What? Just cause your dad knows we exist doesn’t mean he knows shit about the rest of it.”

Stiles gave a startled laugh at the girl's explanation. “Oh god, you’re amazing.”

“I know.”

That just made Stiles laugh all the harder. He looked to Boyd and said in an amused, but serious tone. “Don’t let that one get away man.”

Boyd smirked and nodded, his hand tightening around Erica’s waist. Scott shook his head, putting his phone away he apologized to Stiles. “Sorry man, I just have a hard time lying to your father about this...He’s just worried cause you were hurt.”

Stiles understood his friends but was quick to point out. “I  know, but he really doesn’t need to see this man...Especially if I have one of those...Things appear.”

Scott saw that Stiles had a point, there was no telling when one of the Bastili patterns were going to appear and Stiles would be left screaming in pain. His dad didn’t need to see his son like that, he still wasn’t even aware of what his son was becoming. 

Issac patted Stiles leg as he asked. “You want to finish eating now?”

Stiles smirked at the boy and with little pause chose to tease the other yet again. “Only if you make choo choo noises for me.”

the pack laughed, Isaac shook his head. “You’re going to starve then.”

Stiles gave a forlorn sigh. “Alright alright. No choo choo noises, but I reserve the right to complain if you spill shit on me.”

Issac snorted. “I’m not going to spill anything on you.”

Stiles opened his mouth and with an amused look, Isaac placed the spoon in the boy's mouth, letting him close it to take the food as Isaac pulled the spoon out. Stiles chewed and swallowed before commenting.

“Anyone ever tell you, you should be a nurse or something.”

Issac snorted. “Yeah, the whole overwhelming scents and blood thing might put a damper on that Stiles.”

Stiles thought a moment. “Just don’t have patients that bleed.”

The pack stared at him before they rolled their eyes at boys lame attempts to work around the major flaw in his suggestion. Scott being quick to point out. “Dude, that’s impossible unless his patient is a corpse.”

Stiles smirked as he looked back at Isaac. “There ya go, be a mortician.”

Issac scrunched up his face at the boy. “Do you have any idea how bad that would smell to me, I’d rather smell the blood.”

Stiles huffed. “There’s just no making you happy is there? What’s a little blood or death among friends? I bet it pays good and your nose will go blind eventually.”

Issac glared at the boy who was just smiling at him, Scott shook his head as he stood up to leave.

“I’m going to run into town and get the stuff from my mom. Try and finish feeding him, if he gets on your nerves we can always start feeding him baby food until he complies.”

Stiles made a horrified sound, that caused the pack to snicker. The human glared at Scott before saying.

“Fine, I’ll behave...I hope you realize though that your basically a drug mule right now.” Scott snorted at his friend's attempts to instigate trouble. “You are, you're going to meet a lady who’s going to give you drugs and bring them back here for me.”

“That lady is my mom, a registered nurse.”

Stiles smirked. “Semantics Mr. Drug mule, semantics.”

Rolling his eyes when it appeared that Stiles wouldn’t let it go, Scott turned and left. Stiles snickered as he turned to Isaac now that Scott was out of the picture. “God I love doing that.”

“We can tell.” The others nodded to back up Isaac, Stiles opened his mouth to offer up a rebuttal only to make an mph noise when Isaac shoved the spoon in his mouth and said. “Shut up and eat.”

Stiles smirked around the spoon in his mouth, he loved messing with them.

 

*********************** 

 

When Scott returned from his drug peddling as Stiles liked to call it, he brought with him food and despite having already eaten it was the type of food that he brought which had Stiles changing his tune.

Stiles saw the bag and whatever taunt he had been preparing for his friend died on his lips. “Okay, I’m so sorry and you're my best friend in the world.”

The others snorted right alongside Scott as he set the bags aside. “I already know that dumbass, relax I brought you curly fries.”

Stiles beamed. “Fuck yeah man...So you get the goods?”

He made a wiggly motion with his eyebrows, Scott snorted. “Yeah, I got the morphine you weirdo.”

Scott pulled out a small bag that had been stuffed in his hoodie. He set that on the dresser along with a slip of paper as he addressed the others, Derek had just walked in making his job all the easier.

“Okay, we got vials instead of prepped syringes, the paper tells you how much to put into the syringe. We should have enough here for over a week, but seeing as this should be ending...Were covered.”

The others nodded before Stiles said. “I’d raise my hand, but I can't...So I’m going to just say I have a question and please pick me.”

Scott wasn’t the only one to laugh at Stiles’ method of drawing attention to himself, all of them amused by his overly long explanation of having a question to ask. “Alright, what is it Stiles.”

“Thank you teacher...Okay, so how much dopage are we talking here? Can you just give me a little so I’m not a brain dead zombie?”

Scott rolled his eyes at his friend, but Derek answered the boy's question. “We're going to give you the amount it takes to get the pain under control.”

Stiles glared at the Alpha. “But you don't know how much pain I’m into accurately measure it, so you could end up doping me to hell when I really don’t need that much.”

Derek arched a brow at him as if he was considering the boy's words before finally stating in a clear concise tone. “Tough.”

Stiles snorted at the wolfs lack of an explanation. “Tough? Uh huh, no see I get to decide whether or not I want that shit. My body my choice.”

Derek scowled at the teen, but before they could really get into it Isaac intervened. “Stiles we don’t want to see you in pain man...If you get a little loopy fine. It's worth it to us. You were screaming Stiles, we didn’t need to ask how bad the pain was then.”

Stiles sighed before glancing back at Derek in a petulant matter, he didn’t want to concede to the Alpha’s wishes but knew that he had no other recourse. “Fine, but if I say I can handle it.” Stiles let it hang.

Derek nodded. “If you think you can, we’ll hold off.”

Stiles sighed again feeling like he had lost more than he’d won in that argument before looking up at Scott. “Give me my damn curly fries.”

Scott smirked even as he snatched up the bag in an effort to improve his friend's souring mood. “Yes sir.”

Scott hadn’t gotten a lot of things since the pack had just finished eating, but the fries and in Erica’s case milkshake were passed around. Scott settled beside Stiles on the bed, feeding him curly fries in between bites of his own burger, the Alpha seemingly having an endless stomach. Stiles was happily commenting on how curly fries were meant to be a food group when he hissed. The entire pack tensed, ready to deal with what was going to happen, but Stiles sighed and said. “Huh...Okay...That wasn’t so bad.”

“Stiles?” Scott asked worriedly, as he set the food aside.

“Where was the pain?”

Derek asked from further down the bed. Staring at the Alpha a moment Stiles was about to respond when he hissed again “Fuck...Okay, it's not done...Shit.”

“Stiles?” Scott said in a pinched voice. 

Stiles shook his head and a moment later he blinked, looking to his friend and then to the rest of them in mild surprise. The lack of words coming from the teen had the others on edge, but Stiles didn’t keep them hanging long before he described what he was feeling.

“This...Is different...Uh, it hurt, but like only for a moment. Not like before, no burning...Just pinching?”

Derek and Scott nodded their heads to the boys claim, the Beta’s having come closer since the second reaction Stiles had displayed as if they thought they could ward off the pain by being nearer to the teen. Stiles glanced around to them each in turn, disregarding how they were crowding into his space as his attention was drawn away from them not a moment later.  

“Where Stiles?” Scott demanded to know, looking up at Scott the teen replied.

“My back...Like...Right where the other one is?”

Scott reached to pull Stiles forward to check when Stiles hissed, Scott let go for fear of hurting him and they watched as Stiles pinched face slowly melted back to just confusion. Stiles looked to Scott and said.

“Okay, yeah you need to look for me cause this is...Well, I don’t even know what to call this shit anymore.”

Scott nodded and with Isaac’s help, they pulled Stiles body forward. Stiles hissed a moment later and the two werewolves waited until he nodded his head, for Scott to pull up the shirt. They stared a moment before looking up with wide eyes to each other.

“Scott?”

Leaning around his friend he said. “Uh...So it's not doing the skin thing anymore.” The hesitation in his tone had the others scowling, the subliminal question by the others was superseded by Stiles’ own question.

“It's gone?” Stiles asked confused. 

Scott shook his head, giving Derek a passing glance that got the Alpha up and moving to join them. Derek peered around Stiles back as Scott told Stiles.

“No it's still there, it's just...”

“Quills.”

Stiles' head jerked as far as it could to stare with a perplexed look on his face as he stared at Derek. “Quills? Like quill quills...Porcupine quills?”

Derek looked at the boy who was beginning to panic. “They’re small...Maybe a half an inch long. Th-” Before Derek could finish speaking he turned and batted Isaac’s hand away.  “We don’t know if they can paralyze us. Don’t poke it.”

Stiles laughed all of the sudden, the simple fact that while he was freaking the hell out Isaac was attempting to poke the strange new anatomy that might paralyze them. “Really Isaac? Dude what if you get paralyzed man? I swear you're the most curious guy I know.” Stiles was still laughing after he had said that.

Isaac shrugged as he lowered his gaze from his angry Alpha, Derek sighed. “No one touches them. We don’t know what's going on and if they are capable of paralyzing us, we don’t need to do that to ourselves.”

Stiles leaned back his head and said. “Where’s your sense of adventure Sourwolf?” He teased the Alpha despite not really wanting the others to tempt fate, it got a good reaction from the man just as Stiles had expected it would. 

Derek glowered at Stiles. “How do you like being paralyzed?”

Stiles blinked before he muttered. “Touche.”

Derek nodded before he turned to face the rest of the pack and reinforced. “No one touches them.”

They all nodded, Isaac and Scott got Stiles settled back against the pillows. Stiles made a face as they did so.

“Aare you in pain?” Scott asked concerned.

Stiles looked at him and smiled before he admitted. “No...Just feels weird, I can feel the pressure on them...Like someone patting your hair ya know?”

Scott nodded his head. Stiles sighed, looking up to the ceiling he muttered. “This is so fucked up.”

No one commented on what the boy had to say about the situation, mostly because they agreed. Derek walked back to his previous place and sat back down, Scott picked up their discarded food and offered Stiles a fry. The boy munched on it quietly.  No one said a thing for a while and Stiles knew it was his fault. Disliking the silence surrounding him, the boy shifted his head to look over at Isaac.

“Twenty bucks says you would have gotten paralyzed.”

Issac smirked when the teen’s usual playfulness returned. “I cant bet you if I can't test it and I’m not testing it.”

Stiles smirked back at him. “Ya know you want too.”

Issac chuckled. “You just want to get back at me for all the times I’ve moved you around like a sack of potatoes.”

Stiles didn’t admit to holding a grudge about that, but he did sass the teen. “Damn and I thought I was being sly...Small pleasures man, I want to see you get your ass hauled up off the floor while you're a limp noodle.”

Issac snorted. “Not going to happen.”

Stiles smirked as he glanced back at Scott. “Totally going to happen.”

Scott rolled his eyes at his friend. “No, it's not.” He rebutted. 

Stiles shook his head before stating with an evil glint in his eye as he stared at Isaac. “If I can control it, I’m flooring your ass.”

Issac’s mouth came open in shock. “Dude not fair.”

Stiles laughed openly at him, not dissuaded by the werewolves pouting. 

Shaking his head Derek told the pair. “No one is doing anything to anyone.”

The two looked over to him, but Stiles was the one to speak up. “Totally gonna cage match his ass.”

Derek scowled at the teen prepared to step in when Stiles smirked at him as if he knew that Derek was going to speak up. “What? You want in Sourwolf?”

Snorting Derek replied. “You’d lose, and I’m not going to fight you.”

Stiles made a face at that making a show of glancing up and down the werewolves imposing form. “Nah, I think I could take you”

The others chuckled at the boy's response to Derek claim, none of them believing for a second that Stiles would be able to tackle the Alpha Bastili or not.  

Scott shook his head at Stiles. “Dude you don’t want to fight an Alpha. Me or him.”

Stiles glanced at his friend. “I wouldn’t have to fight you.”

Scott frowned at him confused by his friend's blatant response.

“You’d be too damn busy trying to pet me and get me to roll over or some shit.” Stiles glared at his friend, already knowing that he was right about that assumption. If not before then because of how Scott reacted.

Scott laughed at the boy's sour tone, the others quickly joined in on the fun.

“Well, he could.” Erica chimed in. 

Stiles glanced at the girl and shook his head showing he didn’t understand. She smirked.

“Chris gave us a pair of gloves that can hold up to your quills.”

Stiles made a face before he turned and glared at Scott.

“You pet me and I swear to god Scott, I will make you live to regret it.”

Scott smiled an evil glint in his eye, by the aghast look that came over Stiles’ face the Alpha chuckled. “Relax, I’m not going to try and pet you. You're not a house cat Stiles.”

The boy snorted. “I’ve kinda noticed that.”

The others smirked at the boy's response, the pack settled back slowly into a more calm atmosphere. The joking around having helped settle their nerves after the new discovery which was set aside. Stiles was able to eat curly fries to his everlasting joy and make fun of Isaac and Scott. The werewolves took it in stride and gave just as good as they got. 

 

**************************** 

 

It was later that night when they were all crowded on the bed watching a movie that Stiles did something unexpected. Issac was leaning against his shoulder, Scott on the other side of him. He was in a proverbial werewolf sandwich. Boyd and Erica were strewn across the bottom of the bed, snuggled up together. And Derek had brought in a chair that was seated on the other side of Isaac so he could watch the movie with them and yet still keep his distance as he preferred. Stiles’ nose itched though and before he could even think about asking one of the two wolves squishing him, he reached up and scratched it. Issac and Scott froze, glanced towards the teen between them and the action the other had just done without realizing it. They stared on in shock as Stiles put his hand back down and continued watching the movie as if nothing had happened, they looked at each other and smirked. Stiles didn’t realize what he’d done. Issac easily rolled off the bed and ran over to pause the movie. Everyone, Stiles included whined at him.

“What? Why’d you pause it?”

Issac grinned at him. “You’re mad right?” The overall cheeriness in the blonde's tone earned him many deep scowls.

“Yeah!” Stiles glowered. “Turn it back on.”

“Cause you want to finish the movie?”

Stiles frowned at the teen who was acting oddly. “Yes damn it, Isaac, put the movie back on.”

The wolf grinned at the human, not the least bit deterred from what he was doing. He ignored the rest of the pack who were glancing between the two warring figures, confused as to what was really going on. 

“Ya want to flip me off?”

The wolves were all staring at Isaac like he was nuts, but as they watched the pair go back and forth they happened to see what the wolf was after. Stiles raised his hand in a familiar gesture, waving it about when he said. “Fuck yeah I do.”

“Stiles.”

Stiles glanced to Derek a deeply settled scowl across his face. “What?!”

Smirking the wolf took great pleasure in stating. “Look at your hand.”

Stiles frowned at the Alpha, perplexed as to why Derek was asking him to do that. When Derek didn’t relent in how he was staring at him did Stiles glance down to see his own hand floating in the air. He looked to all of them in shock before he moved it again. Stiles laughed.

“Dude, I can move it.”

Issac laughed at the startled tone Stiles had used, quickly informing him. “You did it a while ago, you scratched your own nose without realizing it.”

Stiles laughed at that, twisting to look at Scott. “I did?”

Scott nodded his head. “Yep”

Stiles laughed as he clenched and unclenched his hand.

“Try the other one.” Erica chimed in. 

Stiles glanced to his other arm and focused on moving it. The fingers twitched a bit, but nothing else happened.

Sighing Stiles shook his head. “Nope.”

“They’re moving though, so you must be getting close to having that arm back as well.” Scott cheered. 

Stiles nodded his head before he made a fist and launched it at Scott. Hitting the werewolf in the shoulder. It didn’t hurt him of course but that didn’t stop Scott from crying out.

“Hey what was that for?”

The werewolf had to right Stiles as the momentum had turned him sideways, Stiles laughed as his friend repositioned him.

“That was for everything dude.” Looking over to Isaac he called out. “Get your furry ass over here so I can punch you.”

Issac snorted and challenged. “Come and get me.”

Stiles laughed before promising the other teen. “Oh, as soon as my legs work man, you are so gonna get it”

The others laughed alongside Isaac as Stiles was forced to put off his attempts to ‘get back’ at Isaac due to his inability to move. Derek smirked as he saw the boy revel in his newfound mobility, continuing to threaten the pack for all they had done to him while he was paralyzed.  Despite it being only one arm it was an improvement and hopefully now that he could move a bit more the boy wouldn’t feel so useless.

 

******* 

 

The following morning found Isaac being woken by a gentle shove, despite the gentle motion the blonde found it far too disruptive. He groaned, reluctantly peeling an eye open to look at Stiles.

“Wha’s up?”

“Nothing.”

Glaring at the smirking boy, Isaac shut his eye again intent on going back to sleep. Stiles smirked at the tired werewolf, he let the boy doze for a minute before he shoved him again. 

Issac growled a bit before he caught himself and sighed. “Stiles...If you don’t need anything stop it.”

Grinning like a loon, Stiles replied. “Don’t you want to help me freak Scott out?”

Issac huffed, never once opening his eyes again as he laid beside the boy. “How? You going to scream again?”He heard Stiles snort before the boy replied. 

“Nope...Got something way better than that.”

Grunting at that as he didn’t really believe the boy and Isaac really just wanted to go back to sleep, Isaac groaned when he was shoved again.

“Fine...What?”

Smirking Stiles whispered. “Play dead.”

Issac stared blankly at the other teen, confused for a moment before settling into a deep scowl. “You woke me up for this?”

Stiles grinned, nodding his head. “Yep.”

Isaac blandly pointed out the flaw in Stiles’ plan. “He can hear your heartbeat dumb ass and no.”

Stiles rolled his eyes to the boy that returned to ignoring him by closing his eyes. “Not me idiot, you.”

Opening his eye once more Isaac glared at once more being disturbed. “He can hear my heartbeat dumbass and no.”

Stiles glared at the same response being repeated to him. “I know he can hear your heartbeat...But that doesn’t mean we can't freak them all out.”

Sighing Isaac sat up on his elbows in defeat, it was clear that Stiles wasn’t about to leave him alone until he heard him out let alone gave into his little plot. “How?”

Stiles grinned, pleased that he had finally gotten his way now that Isaac was paying attention to him.“Quills.”

Issac’s tired expression turned to one of befuddlement, then irritation. The werewolf huffed and fell back into the bedding all while exclaiming. “I’m not touching them dude, Derek and Scott would kill me if I accidentally got myself paralyzed.”

Stiles snickered, no doubt caught up in the thought of such a thing happening. He quickly shook his head, wiping such amazing thoughts from his mind. “You don’t have too.”

Raising a brow to the boy, Isaac wasn’t surprised when Stiles took that as a go ahead. The boy moved his arm over and uncurled his hand. In the center of his palm was a single quill, it was longer than what Isaac had seen before. Isaac sprung upright once more in the bed, mouth agape as he stared down at the little quill his friend held.

“You pulled it out!”

“Shhh!”

Lowering his voice Isaac shook his head and motioned to the quill. “Didn’t that hurt?”

Stiles shook his head. “No, not at all.”

Issac sighed in relief to hear that the boy hadn’t caused himself pain for whatever little stunt he had been planning. Staring at the quill that sat there so innocuous looking, Isaac looked up to Stiles and from one blink to the next smirked. “So what I just flop on the floor and you toss that on me?”

Stiles grinned back at Isaac and then nodded. “Well sorta.” Stiles frowned a moment later and shook his head. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

Issac waved a hand at Stiles, waiting for the teen to explain more of his plan.

“You lay down, preferably in a horrible angle to prove you had no control over your own body. Then you call the others in while I laugh at your ass. When they ask what happened I can show them this and say I got my revenge.”

Issac snickered at the boy's idea, it actually wasn’t half bad. “Derek and Scott will kill you.”

Stiles snorted, disregarding whatever inherent threat the Alpha wolves could have posed to him. “It's fake, you’ll get back up before they really freak out.”

Issac shook his head, his gaze settling once more onto the quill. It was a simple and rather funny prank, but a small part of him wondered if Derek or Scott would see the humor in it. “I don’t know...”

“Come on, it’ll be fun. You know you want too”

Issac stared back at Stiles before sighing, Stiles wasn’t wrong there he really did want to. 

Stiles grinned when he knew that he had Isaac. “Yes, I knew you’d help.”

Shaking his head the teen mumbled. “They’re going to kill the both of us for this.”

Stiles shook his head quickly discarding the reservation in Isaac’s voice. “Doesn’t matter, think of the awesomeness that we are about to create. The looks we’ll get to see on their faces, all you have to do is act a little.”

Issac glared at him, correcting him. “All I have to do is lay there Stiles.”

“Well yeah, but you also have to be convincing in what happened. Maybe let Boyd lift you up and not help him, just go all limp like.” Issac frowned at that, wondering if that would be doable let alone a good idea. “Come on, please...It’ll be fun and I promise to behave for the rest of the day.”

Issac glowered at the boy for that last comment. “And if I don’t?”

Stiles grinned. “I’ll be the worst patient in the world.”

Sighing at the threat that had been leveraged against him Isaac nodded. “Alright, hold on” Isaac climbed from the bed and glanced about, trying to figure out how to fake being paralyzed. 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Isaac, just fall down. Let your body go limp and where you land, you land.”

Shrugging Isaac did just that, he let his legs go out from under him and winced as he slammed to the ground in a meaty thud. He heard Stiles snickering. “Okay, uh now you need to call them in here.”

“How? Just by screaming?”

“I don’t know, uh just call for Scott or something, try and sound like your scared or something...Freaked out because you're suddenly on the floor.”

Stiles grinned when he heard Isaac sigh before the boy called in a pretty convincing tone. “Scott!”

Stiles burst out laughing and it wasn’t all from faking it, it really was funny to know Isaac was laying on the floor looking like an idiot and calling for back up. They both heard the running of what they could only assume to be an Alpha and what had to be the rest of the pack in quick pursuit. The door slammed open and the pack paused in the doorway, all they could see was Stiles laughing.

“Wh-where's Isaac?”

Stiles laughed before gesturing over to the side of the bed, raising a brow, Boyd walked around the bed and sighed. 

He glared down at his fellow Beta. “You had to touch it didn’t you?”

The rest of the pack figured out what the normally quiet Beta meant and Scott stormed over to glance down at Isaac. “Really?!”

“Shut up, he did it.” Issac pouted.  

Scott frowned at Isaac’s retort, anything else he was about to say was cut off by Derek’s entrance. Derek pushed past Erica and walked around to join the other men to stare down at Isaac. He glanced up when he heard Stiles still snickering.

“How’d this happen? Did you ask him to scratch your back or something? Or was he really stupid enough to touch them?” The last shot was given along with a pointed glare down to the unmoving Beta.

Stiles chuckled before he held up his hand, in between his thumb and forefinger was a single quill. The pack stared at him in shock before Scott yelled out. “You paralyzed him!”

Stiles laughed at his friends face, it was just as he thought it would be. Stiles was sure he heard Isaac even give a chuckle which was probably why Derek was glaring down at him.

“You think this is funny?”

Issac was silent a moment as he stared up at the furious visage of one of the pack’s Alpha’s, swallowing nervously he called out.  “Stiles?”

“Yeah yeah, games over.”

The pack looked between the two confused for all of a second before Isaac hoped back up to his feet and shrugged about to flex his shoulders loose. He smirked at them at the same time he held up his hands and said. “He blackmailed me.”

Derek and Scott's glare shifted towards Stiles, the teen was still smirking.

“So you didn’t paralyze him at all?”

Stiles shook his head. “Nope.”

Derek frowned, his eyes latching onto the quill that Stiles was still holding. “How’d you get the quill?”

Stiles snorted and waved it at the Alpha. “I pulled it out stupid.”

The pack tensed.

“You did what!” Scott raged as he came forward. 

Stiles sighed as he was wrenched forward, his shirt being pulled up so Scott could no doubt look at his back. “Would you stop, hey...God damn it Scott. I’m fine. It didn’t even hurt.”

“You’ve got a frickin hole in your back.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the others who he was staring up at as he was folded over himself.

“It didn’t hurt.”

Derek sighed and rubbed his forehead, frustrated with the entire situation. “Scott let him go.”

Scott glanced over Stiles' shoulder and glared. “He pulled a fuckin quill out of his body Derek.”

The Alpha nodded, giving a bland look back at Scott. “I know. Let him sit up and we’ll talk about this.”

Derek gave Stiles a pointed look, Stiles just continued to grin at him. Scott sighed but pulled down Stiles shirt before righting the boy against the pillows once more. Scott glared at the quill in his hand, Stiles rolled his eyes.

“I’m fine dude. It didn’t hurt at all.”

Scott shook his head at him, before looking at Derek. “What now?”

Derek ignored Scott’s question in favor of glaring at Stiles. “Don’t do that again.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Oh well okay.”

They all heard the sarcasm filtering into his voice, Derek growled a second before telling the boy.

“I mean it Stiles, we don’t need someone getting paralyzed because of your quills.”

Stiles huffed as he looked down at the quill in his fingers. It looked harmless really, not all that bigger than a needle. 

“Just give it to Scott and he’ll throw it out.”

“We can give it to Deaton.” Scott suggested as he reached out a hand to take the quill. 

Stiles glared and pulled his hand back. “I don’t want any more tests done on me, I’ve been poked and prodded enough.”

Scott gave him a sympathizing look before stating. “He’ll only test things on the quill Stiles, not on you.”

Stiles watched him a moment before begrudgingly nodding. He reached to hand over the quill, intending to lay it flat on Scott’s open palm when a bang startled them all. They all twisted to try and figure out what it was, but a moment later they were turning around as they heard.

“Oh shit.”

“Uh well, that sucks.”

They turned and saw the quill sticking out of Scott’s hand. The pair stared at each other frozen.

“I’m so sorry.” Stiles sputtered. 

Scott nodded his head as he stared down at his hand.

“Scott?” Derek spoke the boy's name firmly.

Scott looked over to him dread in his eyes. “How do you feel?”

Swallowing Scott said. “Fine...Uh, how fast is it supposed to work?”

“Pull it out idiot!” Erica shouted.

Reaching over Scott plucked the quill out of his hand and held it up between his fingers, analyzing the sharp object that had pierced his skin. Whatever damage it had caused him was already healed, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to be paralyzed.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asked worriedly. 

Slowly Scott nodded, informing the pack. “I feel fine.”

Stiles blinked at his friend before looking down at his friend's palm, the wound the quill had made was already healed. No sign that he’d been pricked by it. Their attention was momentarily turned away once more when Chris walked in.

“Hey sorry for not calling I-whats going on?” Chris frowned as he looked around the room to the gobsmacked teens.

Derek sighed as he spoke in a resigned fashion. “Stiles’ got quills and Scott just got pricked by one.”

Chris’s eyes widened at what he’d heard, not a moment later he strode over and looked at Scott. “You feel dizzy, breathless, anything?”

Scott shook his head though his brows furrowed when he heard what the hunter was really asking him. “Should I?”

Chris disregarded the teen's question in order to continue his own investigation. “You can move everything? Where’d-”

“My hand.” Scott held up the bare palm, but the hunter wasn’t surprised to find it blemish free. Nodding Chris glanced to the quill in the boy's other hand, he stared at it a moment before nodding once more.

“Okay, hold on to that a second more.”

Chris threw his bag onto the bed beside Stiles' legs and dug around, he pulled out a vial and unscrewed the top. Chris offered it over to Scott. “Put it in there.”

By this times Stiles looked like he had systematically killed his best friend, once the quill was taken care of Scott turned and saw the look.

“Hey, I’m okay...Even if I loose control of my body for a bit, it's okay.”

Stiles shook his head, refusing to say anything. His attention drifted to Chris and he finally spoke. “Can you take that to Deaton for us?”

Chris arched a brow before nodding. “Sure, why though?”

Stiles swallowed. “Maybe he can figure out how to make something to counteract the paralytic in them.”

Chris smirked at Stiles before pointing at Scott. “Stiles, your quill was empty. If it had any paralytic in it Scott would have been on the floor by now.”

Stiles frowned, skeptical by the hunter's assurances. He glanced to Scott as if waiting for the wolf to prove Chris wrong, but nothing happened. Giving Chris a wary look, he asked. “You're sure?”

Chris nodded. “Yeah I’m sure, that’s why I asked how he felt, but when he didn’t show any signs of being affected I realized the quill was empty.”

“Empty.” Stiles repeated with a frown. “How’s that even possible?”

“It happens, think of it like this, a cat or in this case, a Bastili can decide when they’re claws come out right? It’s the same thing with the quills, if you don’t want to paralyze someone then your quills won't fill with the paralytic. You can use the quills as a deterrent instead of a real weapon. I take it this wasn’t a normal accident and there were special circumstances.” The hunter looked between the two teens.

Scott snorted, throwing his friend under the bus. “He pulled the damn thing out of his own back to pull a prank on us.”

Chris smirked, not the least bit surprised to hear that Stiles had done something like that before pointing something out to the pack.“And there’s your reason, he pulled it out.”

The pack looked at Chris a moment before Derek questioned the man shrewdly. “So if Stiles removes them, they’ll be empty?”

Chris nodded, shrugged and then added. “Well unless he wants them to have the paralytic, I suppose he could do it either way...If you, for instance, tried to pull some out, you’d be on the floor so fast your head would spin. His body would instinctually react to the threat and-”

“And the quills would be armed.” Stiles cried out in excitement. 

The pack looked at him oddly, but Stiles just said in a joyful tone. “Don’t you get it, if I know who’s messing with me I won't paralyze them. If I can control my shift, I won't be knocking you guys on your asses.”

Scott smirked at his friend's apparent excitement but gently tried to make him see reason. “I think its a bit trickier than that Stiles.”

The boy shook his head and pointed towards Chris, the hunter’s eyes widened a bit as he saw the boy move for the first time. “No, he said that it's all intent right? If I feel threatened than someones going to be taking a siesta. If not, then nothings going to happen. I know you guys, I’m not about to just paralyze you”

Issac snorted. “Except me right?”

Stiles grinned at him and winked. “Maybe just once.” He turned back to the others. “But see, I’ll be able to control if someone drops like a rock or not.”

Chris smirked at the overly exuberant boy, informing the teen. “It’ll take a bit to control it Stiles, but you have the right idea. It is all about intent.” Glancing to the vial which now housed a single quill, the hunter cautioned. “ No more pulling quills though.”

Stiles nodded his head but assured the hunter. “It didn’t hurt.”

Chris cocked his head to the side before smirking. “No, I don’t expect it would Stiles. It's no different than a porcupine or any other creature with quills. You told your body to let go of it  if someone was yanking them out it would hurt.”

“Oh...Good to know.”

Chris nodded his head at him and tucked the vial with the boys quill away. “I can still take it to Deaton, but chances are there’s nothing for him to test.”

Stiles shook his head. “Eh let him play with it, it cant hurt any.”

Shaking his head Chris turned to Derek. “The real reason I came here is that I found something I thought you’d find useful.”

Derek nodded his head, not saying a word as he was content to let the hunter talk.

“I contacted a friend of mine and told them...Well, a bald-faced lie, but that doesn’t matter.” Chris shook his head as if he was still trying to get over the fact that he’d lied for the sake of a werewolf pack.

The pack smirked at the man. They knew he wasn’t afraid to lie to people and since the relationship between the pack and the argents had stabilized the man had covered for them numerous times. Keeping other hunters away from beacon hills by claiming the town was under his protection, that he didn’t need any help. Still, Chris found it odd to actually speak of the lies he told on behalf of them.

“Anyways, the rumor mill was a foot a while back and I remembered someone mentioning something about an old mythology, so I tracked down the hunter and asked them about it.”

As Chris talked he rifled through his bag, he pulled out a jar. A black jar, they couldn’t see inside it to know its contents.

“This is very expensive, luckily someone owed me a favor.” He gently placed the jar on the nearby dresser.

“Keep it out of direct sunlight.” The pack nodded to the hunters warning. “Alright, so I’m sure you're curious as to what's in there. Issac draw the blinds.”

Issac twisted about and shut the blinds, making the room rather dark.

“Uh, are we having some sort of show and tell in the dark?”

Stiles quipped as he blinked his eyes a few time at the sudden change of light in the room.

Chris smirked at the teen. “In a manner of speaking yes.”

The hunter turned, unscrewed the cap of the jar and stuck a finger into it. When Chris pulled it out there was a glistening sheen coating his fingers. Like bioluminescent water, it radiated in the darkness, a swirl of blues and greens that glowed like a supernatural glow stick. Chris nodded to Derek.

“Put the cap back on for me.”

Derek did as asked as Chris walked over to Stiles. Stiles glanced up to him with a look of curiosity and wariness as the hunter encroached on his space.

“This won't hurt.”

Stiles snorted. “Great way to start a conversation man.”

Chris smirked before he lowered his hand down near the teen only to chuckle when Stiles twisted his head aside suddenly a grimace on his face. Chris pulled his hand back a moment later and wiped the glowy substance off on his pants. Stiles looked up at him with a ‘what the hell’ look which was clearly mirrored by the rest of the teens.

“What was that?”

“How’d it make you feel?” Chris ignored the boy's initial question, curious and also not surprised to hear the boys answer.

“Like I wanted to get away from it.” Stiles frowned when he realized what he’d just said, he wasn’t lying. He’d wanted to get away from Chris all of the sudden, away from whatever it was on the man’s hand.

“Stiles?” Scott asked concerned. 

Stiles shook his head at his best friends confused tone, his attention solely on the hunter who was smiling down at him as if he had all the answers. Stiles supposed that was true enough after all Chris was the one to bring the glowy stuff in the first place. 

Chris chuckled. “What you just experienced is the need or desire to distance yourself from a plectranthus caninus otherwise known as a spurflower. It’s a substance used by hunters when dealing with feline creatures like a splinter cat, kasha, or mishibijiw. I figured it might affect you since you’re in fact a supernatural cat.”

“What does it do?” Derek’s scowl had tightened over the last few minutes, mostly after witnessing how Stiles had reacted to the substance Chris had brought.

“It’s a deterrent, hunters use it to direct where a supernatural cat will go or in some cases where it won’t...Like a supernatural fence.” Chris chuckled. “It’s not like mountain ash where you can’t cross it, it’s a barrier that a supernatural cat just doesn’t wish to cross.” The hunter smirked at Stiles. “You could cross it, but it’s not likely you’ll want to.”

“Great.” Stiles droned. “So it’s some mystical leash?”

Chris laughed. “Not really Stiles, it’s just a way of keeping you somewhere.”

“But without the rest of them being affected right?” Stiles tilted his head a bit to make sure he was really understanding the man.

“Basically.” Chris nodded. “They can cross it without any harm.” 

“But he’ll be stuck on the other side of it?” Erica snorted in amusement. “Because he’s a cat.”

Stiles glowered at the girl. “He said I can cross it.” Stiles pointed at the hunter as if that would gain him some points in the argument.

“But you won’t.” She sang back.

Huffing Stiles turned his frustration back to Chris. “I think we’re good, I’ll get enough shit from them I don’t need to be herded like a sheep.”

Chris snorted, shaking his head before glancing towards Derek. “It’s a safe means of keeping him contained. I’d offer to put up a mountain ash ba-”

“No.”

Chris smirked, he already knew that was the response he’d get from the Alpha. “And that’s why I brought it.” He boasted it earned him a steely glare.

Stiles sighed as he watched the two men go at it, well, Chris was just being Chris, Derek was the one who was in a tizzy. Not that Stiles really blamed him, he wasn’t too keen on being trapped behind mountain ash either. Still, the weird glowy stuff that Chris had brought made him shiver. Everyone glanced at him when they noticed the motion, huffing Stiles glared at the hunter.

“That stuff blows.”

Chris chuckled. “It’s just a precaution, they don’t have to use it Stiles.”

The teen shook his head. “It works...I just don’t like it.”

“What’s it feel like?” Isaac leaned in closer as if that would get him an answer any faster, Stiles just glared at the curious teen.

“Weird.”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “That’s descriptive.”

“He’s got a point there man.”

Stiles glance between Isaac and Scott before muttering. “I don’t see you two jumping for joy when mountain ash is around.”

“Does it hurt?”

Stiles glanced up to Derek, he could see the fierceness behind the man’s scowl. Derek wasn’t about to put him in harm's way just to contain him. Smirking Stiles shook his head. “No, doesn’t hurt...It just makes me feel...I don’t know.” Stiles sighed when he realized he didn’t have an accurate way to describe how the strange substance made him feel.

Derek glared down at the jar and as if sensing where the Alpha’s head was going, Chris interceded.

“I brought it so you could use it for his shift. If he’s confined to a small area with you then he’ll be forced to scent you. He’ll smell your scent for an extended period of time, it’ll help him to know he can trust you despite you being a different species.”

Derek didn’t look overly convinced, that is until Chris brought up something else. “It will help with the whole adoption thing Derek.”

Stiles gave a befuddled look, looking to Derek to see if the Alpha had any idea what Chris was going on about. By the dawned on look Derek had, he did. Turning his attention to Chris, Stiles teased the hunter in hopes of getting an answer. “Adoption? Okay, so I know who my parents are-”

Scott chuckled at his friend. “Not that Stiles. It's a term...Uh, Bastili can adopt things.”

“Things?” Stiles raised a brow at the vague answer. “Am I going to bond with a toaster if I’m put in a room with it?”

Scott snorted as the pack chuckled behind him. “No dumbass. People. It's only ever been done with humans, but if you adopt us as your pack.”

“Pride.” Chris cut in. 

Scott nodded his head. “Right, pride. If you adopt us as your pride we won't have any issues.”

Stiles glanced between all of them, skeptic about something. “So...It doesn’t matter that I’m already a part of the pack?”

Chris shook his head. “You were when you were completely human, a Bastili is not a wolf. It doesn’t think like a wolf Stiles. However, it has a similar family structure known as a pride. If you can bond with them as if they were your pride, then things will go back to normal. The attachment you have now to the pack isn’t going to be enough to keep your Bastili side complacent. Your relationships with them might, but just because your a member of their pack doesn’t mean your Bastili is.”

Stiles sighed. “Wonderful.” Stiles let his head fall back against the pillows, frustrated with everything. The stupid cat repellent, adoption, just everything. The group was silent for a few minutes, waiting to see if Stiles would gather his thoughts. Five minutes went by without the teen saying a word, finally, Scott prompted his friend.

“Does it feel bad?”

“No...Not really. It's just this nagging thing...In the back of my head.”

Chris smirked. “Its fine Stiles. It’ll go away in a while. I’m not about to keep you confined to the bed until you adopt me.” The hunter teased.

Stiles snorted. “ You’re a bit big to be my kid.”

Chris chuckled. “Adoption doesn’t mean a child-parent relationship Stiles.”

Stiles already knew that, but it was still fun to yank the man's chain. “Still don’t like it.”

“Then we won't use it.” Derek cut in. 

Stiles glanced to the Alpha, he could see the tenseness in the man's form. “But if it helps-”

Derek shook his head, resolute in his decision. “If you don’t like the way it makes you feel, we won't use it. We can find another way.”

Chris sighed. “It's really not all that bad Derek.”

Derek glared at the hunter.

Chris shrugged his shoulders. “Alright then...If you’re sure.”

Derek nodded.

“Derek.” The Alpha glanced to Stiles, the boy bit his lip before saying. “Keep it...If it looks like things are going to go well then we might need it. We don’t have to use it right away...It’s just a precaution.”

Derek watched the boy a moment, trying to see if the boy truly was comfortable with this. Stiles wasn’t giving him much to go off of, but the teen's request wasn’t unreasonable. “Alright, if things don’t work out how we expect it to, we’ll consider using it.”

Derek held his gaze a moment longer, finally giving into the teen. A small nod shared between them.

Chris smirked at the pair. It always had been Stiles who spoke the voice of reason into the pack. Made them listen and see things clearly. He shouldn’t have been surprised that this instance was no different.

“Alright, well just keep it out of the sunlight and your good. If you decide to use it, a little bit goes a long way. It’ll keep him confined to where ever you put it. Everything else is up to you.”

The pack nodded, Chris zipped up his back and slung it over his shoulder.

“I’m going to head out, I’ll drop off your quill to Deaton and let him tinker around with it.”

“I’m sure he’ll have a field day.” He sassed back.

Chris chuckled and nodded as he walked towards the door. “I’ll see you all later.”

Stiles nodded his head before calling out to the hunter. “We haven't told my dad yet...So if you hear him wanting to come to check on me without calling...”

Chris nodded, he could understand the kids fear. It wasn’t something that you wanted to have being heard second hand. “I’ll waylay him and give you a heads up if it fails.”

“Thanks.”

Chris nodded before heading out. The wolves slowly untensed when they heard the man leave the loft. It was when he noticed the subtle motion that Stiles realized just how keyed up they’d all been since Chris’ arrival.

Stiles smirked at them all and unable to contain himself uttered. “I’m surprised you guys don’t growl at him, an intruder in the territory an all.” Stiles laughed. 

Derek snorted back at him, cutting through the teen's sarcasm. “A member of our pack is defenseless right now, our instincts are a little close to the surface. we know he’s not likely to be a threat, but we can't be certain.”

Stiles smiled at the Alpha, he hadn’t expected or needed Derek to defend their actions. He knew perfectly well why they were acting the way they were acting. “I know, I was teasing Sourwolf. I know you guys will protect me, but hey I can always fling quills at people now...at least it would hurt if not paralyze them.”

Derek shook his head at the teen's explanation of his grand ability to defend himself, it was then that he decided to reinforce his earlier orders. “No more pulling quills out.” Stiles rolled his eyes in reply, but Derek ignored the reaction in favor of turning his attention to Isaac. “And no more going along with his pranks.”

Issac smiled a little remorsefully, giving a small shrug. “Yeah...I won't.”

Stiles snorted. “I’m sure you heard the lie in that, he will”

Issac glared at Stiles who was grinning at him, Derek shook his head before turning to Scott.

“You feel fine still?”

“Yep, nothing.”

Stiles sighed at his best friends assurances. “I know its stupid, but it nice to know I’m not broken and that it was just cause I had pulled it out.”

Scott glared at him. “You wanted me to be paralyzed?”

Stiles shook his head. “No, I didn’t mean to stick you with it, but when nothing happened I figured something was really wrong with me. good to know it's just cause I didn’t want too.”

Scott snorted not in the least bit convinced by his friend's explanation. “Keep your quills to yourself from now on.”

Stiles chuckled. “No promises”

shaking his head Scott backed up Derek. “No more pranks with quills and don’t let him pull any out.”

Erica snorted. “I think we’ll notice if he’s reaching for his back to pull them out Scott, we won't let him.”

Stiles huffed. “Spoilsports, all of you.”

the pack ignored the petulant teen. Stiles was inwardly smirking though, as scared shitless as he was about his pending transformation, it was kinda cool to know he could control the quills. He could definitely use that to his advantage in the future.

 

****************************

 

If finding out all the stuff about his own quills hadn’t been enough for the day, Stiles managed to get the use of his other hand halfway through the day. He was ecstatic of course and the pack was happy for him as he was able to do his wide gestures he was known for. To celebrate his new found movement, Erica with the help of Isaac and Boyd cooked a feast for dinner that night. Stiles was happily chewing on his chicken as they all talked about random things. From what classes they were planning on taking for extra credits and if they could line up any part of their schedules when it got closer. Stiles swallowed a bite of his green beans before remarking.

“I’m totally going to kick ass in P.E now”

Scott chuckled. “Hey you might be able to climb the rope now”

Stiles glared at him. “That was totally your fault and you know it.”

Scott snickered and through his snickering asked. “How is it my fault if you couldn’t climb it?”

Stiles glare had Scott outright laughing. 

“Okay, what’d you do?” Erica asked in an amused tone.

Scott shook his head as he held his hands up. “I did nothing.”

“Liar.” Stiles muttered, turning to Erica he replied. “He shook the rope I was climbing. Or as he put it, to recreate an actual scenario where the wind was involved.”

Erica smirked before stating in a barely contained mirthful voice. “How rude.” The twitching of her lips gave her away.

Stiles snorted at her. “Laugh it up I know you want too.”

Erica laughed and nodded. “I’m sorry, it's just funny.”

Sighing Stiles glanced over to Scott and said. “Cats can climb though...I bet I’ll be able to kick your ass at the wall climb.”

Scott smirked. “Probably, just no claws or anything...Even with as dense as the coach is, he might notice that.”

Stiles chuckled as he thought about that. “He might notice.” They shared a smirk between each other.

Issac nudged Stiles leg to get his attention. “So you going to try your hardest to get on first line this year.”

He smirked knowingly at Stiles. They all knew that with his new abilities that were sure to come soon, the boy would have no trouble keeping up. 

Stiles grinned back. “You bet your wolfsbane intolerant ass I am.”

The pack laughed at the boy's comment, even Derek had a smirk on his face at the teen's remark.

“Try not to break Jackson” Boyd mentioned suddenly. 

Stiles grinned over to him. “God, can you imagine the look on his face when he tries to plow me over and it fails?”

“He’s going to break his ribs” Isaac quipped. 

Stiles smirked at the teen “God it's going to be beautiful.” His eyes widened a moment later and he turned his head towards Erica. “Erica please come and record it.”

She smirked at the boys not so innocent request. “Alright, I’ll come to the tryouts just to record Jackson being flattened by you. Happy?”

“Oh god yeah...Oh and get coaches face too.” The others snorted at the boy's amusement, a moment later Stiles asked. “Is it considered murder if I give him a heart attack for being awesome?”

Scott snorted. “Your dads the sheriff you’ll have to ask.”

Stiles laughed, that was one thing he refused to do. A second later he hissed, the pack tensing right alongside him only to freeze when Stiles suddenly said. “Huh...Okay, that is different.”

“Stiles   happening?”

Looking to Scott the boy asked. “Uh, could you look at my back?”

Scott nodded, Stiles was mostly able to hold himself after Scott pushed him forward, bracing himself on his arms he waited. He felt his shirt come up and then Scott said.

“Uh...Did you get the pinching thing again?”

Stiles shook his head, a smirk on his face as he already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask. “The quill grew back, didn’t it? That’s what I was feeling.”

Scott pulled back and helped Stiles lay back. “Yeah, the one you yanked out is back.”

Stiles smiled and with a shrug muttered. “Well, at least they come back...Hate to look like a manged cat.”

Scott smirked at his friend's joke. “Yeah, would hate to have to shave you.”

Stiles gave a bark of laughter before he punched Scott in the arm, the werewolf laughed at his friend's rebuttal.

“You alright?” Issac hedged carefully.

Stiles nodded quickly assuring them all. “Fine, it was a really weird sensation though...It didn’t pinch like when they first came in. It was more...Slippery?” He frowned at the sound of his own words.

The pack nodded to him as if they understood what he meant, Stiles was pretty sure they didn’t but smiled regardless. “At this rate, I’m not going to shift until next year.”

Scott snorted, but Derek was the one to speak up. “It's not going to be much longer Stiles. No matter how slow this seems to be, this is more just a warm-up than anything.”

Stiles glanced to the older Alpha. “Can't I just skip to the burning pain in my side and panting after running less than a mile. Screw warm-ups man, let's get to it and get it over with.”

Derek smirked. “Not that easy.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Yeah, now you tell me.”

It wasn’t long before they went back to a normal flow of conversation, the topic no longer being around the supernatural and the coming change Stiles was going to be undergoing. It was nice to be able to act normal for a change, to talk about stupid teenager stuff. Derek didn’t seem all that bothered by the normalcy of it either, the Alpha smirking at his pack as he listened into their conversations. Only offering up a word here or there if he felt the need to do so.

 


	16. Grandpa shuffle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles is feeling the pressure as the eclipse looms overhead, he still hasn't talked to his father about everything and he's running out of time. Worse yet, Melissa is called to pay him a visit that he's not to keen too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few more chapters until Stiles transformation happens, I know you're all looking forward to that! Leave a comment or kudo, I love hearing from everyone.

The nearer they got to the eclipse, the more tense things became. Stiles had shown improvement over the last two days since he regained the use of both arms. Someone was with him at all times, but starting today the pack was going to be starting to arrange the loft space into the safest it could be for his coming change. Moving furniture and breakables out of the way. Storing them in closets and other rooms. Stiles was a little upset that he was forcing Derek to change his whole place just for him, but he didn’t say anything. 

Stiles knew it was better if they did move things, he’d feel even worse if he managed to break everything. The items that had been collected for his shift were laid out on the dresser, Stiles swore they were taunting him. He knew better of course, the pack had simply put them there so they wouldn’t get misplaced or knocked around while they moved things in the loft space. Stiles sighed and chose to ignore the look Erica gave him. Right now all the boys were helping in the loft space. Leaving the only girl to watch over him like a proverbial babysitter.

“Its sexist for them not to include you, you're just as strong as they are.” Stiles remarked despite knowing that wasn’t the reason that she was keeping him company.

Erica’s mouth twitched as she fought not to smile at the boy. “Is it now?”

Stiles nodded his head, still not looking at her. “It is. Though I suppose this is a way for them to show off their masculinity or virility...Depends on them though.” He frowned a moment before broadcasting his own internal thoughts. “I wouldn’t think Boyd would need to display himself to such a degree, but he’s your problem, not mine.”

Erica smirked at Stiles, the boy was staring at the ceiling, something he had done for the last half an hour or so. It was a nice change though. Prior to that, Stiles had been glaring at all the items on the dresser, Erica knew Stiles didn’t realize he had been doing that. She’d chosen not to say a word about it, letting the boy sort through things on his own. Eventually, he tilted his head back and started staring at the ceiling like he still was now.  At least he’d started talking again, the silence made her think back to when he couldn’t talk. It unnerved her.

“I don’t think Boyd’s too worried about that.”

Stiles nodded. “I didn’t figure he would be, but you never know. Statistically the bigger the man is the more likely he is to have an issue about his own masculinity. I just think that’s an excuse myself. Whether your ripped or not, you can still have a tiny dick.”

Erica laughed. “Yeah...I guess you can.”

Stiles smirked a bit, inwardly proud of himself for making the girl laugh. Twisting his head to the side to finally meet the amused girls face, Stiles questioned. “Take it you don’t have to worry about that with Boyd?”

Before she could offer up a reply, Boyd shouted down the hallway. “Shut up Stiles!”

Stiles smirked as he twisted his head towards the door as if he half expected Boyd to come storming into the room to defend his own honor when he didn’t Stiles twisted his head back to look at Erica. He winked, she snorted at him. Stiles took a deep breath before calling back. “ Someone has to make sure you're satisfying the nice lady”

Erica coughed at that before shaking her head. “You’re lucky he considers you pack.”

Stiles smirked at her. “He won't hurt me, he loves me.”

“No, I don’t.”

Stiles glanced over to the doorway to see Boyd scowling at him. “Come on, you cant feel threatened by me. Look at you man, your a fuckin werewolf. If that couldn’t get you a girl nothing could and I really think you two would have hit off beforehand anyway.”

That seemed to mollify the Beta’s irritation because his lips twitched into a half smile. Stiles grinned at him. “How’s it going out there?” Stiles waved his hand towards the door the Beta was standing in. 

Boyd simply nodded and gave a simple.  “Good.”

Stiles snorted as he rolled his eyes. “I forgot, your the one who doesn’t talk...Go get me Isaac.”

Boyd smirked at him. “Isaac is busy.”

Stiles glared at the other teen's sass. “Ha ha, like you don’t have more stuff you could be doing.”

Boyd shrugged before he looked to Erica. “The others wanted to know if you want Chinese tonight?”

Erica shrugged. “Sounds fine to me.”

Boyd looked to Stiles as if silently asking the same question. Stiles snorted. “Admit it, you just want me to make a fool of myself with chopsticks.”

Before Boyd could reply, Scott's voice shouted down the hallway. “We don’t need to get Chinese for you to make a fool of yourself. It’s just a bonus.”

Stiles' mouth came open in shock, Boyd smirked as he twisted around and left. Erica chuckled at the boy's gaping expression.

“that traitorous bastard.” Stiles gasped, a moment later he called out. “I’m putting dog biscuits in your Christmas stocking this year!”

They heard Scott's bark of laughter from down the hall at the apparent threat. Erica shook her head at the teen, patting him on the leg she got his attention. “Alright, let the boys get back to work.”

Stiles huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. Let them slave away at my jungle gym.”

Erica snorted. “Derek’s loft isn’t a jungle gym, not even for you.” She pointed out with a look.

“Pretty sure it’s going to be, I mean you guys weren’t exactly model patients when it was your turn now were you?”

Erica didn’t have a rebuttal about that, instead choosing to say. “It’s not going to be bad Stiles. Were all going to be here with you, the more space you have to move around the less likely you’ll feel threatened.”

Stiles gave a brisk nod, he was well aware of that, didn’t change the fact that he was causing the entire pack so much grief. Sighing Stiles let his head fall back to stare up at the ceiling as he muttered.

“I’m going to be a cat surrounded by glorified dogs. How is that not threatening?”

Erica smiled wanly at him. As derogatory as that statement was, the boy had a point. She patted his leg once more without saying anything else. She’d let the boy think some more, with any luck he’d snap out of his funk before the boys were done and they could all lounge together.

 

*********************

 

It was three hours later when Stiles twisted his head suddenly to look at Erica, he’d dozed off a while ago, but had woken some fifteen minutes ago. They hadn’t spoken much since he woke and he was oddly okay with that. However, there was something different.

“Uh...Could you uncover my legs?”

The girl gave him a look. Stiles knew she was uncomfortable about his catheter, but all of them had repeatedly told her he wasn’t naked and nothing important was showing. Still, they did their best to keep him ‘decent’ for Erica. She sighed and nodded. She pulled the light blanket off of him and Stiles pushed himself up, it took all of his strength to be able to hold himself up but he was determined to do so. Stiles frowned down the length of himself.

Erica frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Stiles shook his head before he twisted his leg. Erica’s eyes widened as she watched Stiles pull his leg up to bend at the knee. He set it back down a moment later with a smile on his face. He put a finger to his lips getting himself a glower, but Stiles shook his head and pointed to the door. Huffing she walked over and slowly closed it to give them some privacy from the rest of the pack.

“Alright, what's up? Don’t you want them to know?”

“Of course I do...I’m just trying to figure out how to freak them out.”

Snorting she jerked open the door and called down the hallway before Stiles could stop her.

“Stiles can move his leg!”

Stiles huffed. “Spoilsport.”

Erica ignored him and smiled as the pack slowly came down the hallway and entered the room. Stiles smiled at them and without any prompting from the pack lifted his leg back up. Scott smiled.

“That’s awesome dude, hows the other one?”

“That one I am afraid is dead to the world. Poor bastardized zombie leg it is.” Stiles gave the still paralyzed limb a rather morose look.

Scott snorted. “It’ll come back.”

Stiles glanced back up towards his best friend, giving him a bland retort. “Yeah and then I get to look forward to your mom coming to yank this catheter out of me.”

Scott laughed. “She’s not going to yank it out dude.”

“I would hope not.” Isaac muttered with a wary look towards Scott. 

Stiles glared at Isaac despite the blonde not noticing it, turning his attention back to Scott. “Still, it's not going to be pleasant.”

“Never said it would be, I just said there wouldn’t be any yanking.”

Stiles smirked. “Yeah yeah...Do you think I’ll have any problems walking? I mean I’ve been in bed for like a week.”

Scott shrugged. “We can help with that once your catheter is out.”

Stiles glanced to Boyd and with a broad smile asked. “Will you carry me around like a maiden?”

Boyd snorted. “I’ll drop you.” The larger teen promised with a smirk.

Stiles threw a hand over his heart like he had been wounded. “You hurt me kind sir.” Boyd rolled his eyes. “But I suppose since you have a kickass warrior princess of your own, you wouldn’t take me.” He winked to Boyd before smiling at Erica.

She laughed before countering. “I would hope he wouldn’t trade me for you.”

Stiles laughed. “Yeah...Don’t think I’m Boyd’s type.”

“You’re not.” Came the blunt tone as the boy walked over to embrace Erica. She smirked up at him as she tilted her head back. “Are you my knight in shining armor then?”

“Not silver that’s for damn sure.”

The others laughed at Stiles joke, Erica shook her head at the boy. “No not silver.”

“Besides, you don’t need rescuing. You're a badass warrior princess.” Erica smirked at Stiles. The boy grinned at her before looking over to Isaac. “Will you woo me?”

Isaac chuckled, shaking his head at the bizarre question. “No.”

Sighing Stiles cried out dramatically. “Will no one-”

“Shut up Stiles.” Scott laughed out. 

Stiles grinned at them all. “Fine fine, I’ll just have to woo myself.”

Isaac snorted and was about to open his mouth when Erica countered. “If you make a handjob joke I will hurt you.” His mouth closed with an audible click as Erica glowered at the teen. 

Stiles snickered at his friend's capitulation. “Oh god, that was too perfect.”

Derek shook his head. “Come on, we have more work to do.”

Glancing to Stiles he gave the boy a nod before leaving, Stiles smirked and waved the rest of the pack off. Settling once more Stiles turned to Erica and said. “You know you love me.”

She smirked. “We do.”

 

*********************************

 

When Stiles woke the following morning, he knew. He just knew that he had complete control over his body. Ignoring Scott’s snoring he shifted his legs and smiled. Finally, he was back to normal. Well, moveable normal that is. Being as careful as possible, Stiles rolled himself onto his side to face Scott and whispered. “Scott.”

The boy’s brow furrowed a moment before relaxing. Smirking Stiles whispered again. “Scott.”

Again the boy’s brow furrowed. Not giving the werewolf a chance to relax once more Stiles continued.

“I want this tube out of my dick like yesterday.”

Scott’s eyes opened to stare at him blearily. “Wha?”

“My dick, I want you to call your mom so she can fix my dick.”

Scott’s face scrunched up before his brain finally registered what was being said. “Your di-”

He glanced down and saw Stiles laying on his side, a moment later he was kicked with Stiles ‘paralyzed’ leg. Looking back up he saw the smile on Stiles' face.

“I’m back bitches.”

Laughing Scott wrapped his arms around Stiles and the pair celebrated in a very manly hug. Okay, it wasn’t, but they were both ecstatic.

“Oh, yeah...Let me go call her alright.”

Stiles nodded as they pulled apart. He watched Scott get up and head towards the kitchen where the boy's phone was no doubt charging. Stiles sighed as he shifted onto his back. He couldn’t wait to be able to walk again, to pee again. He smirked, it really was the smallest of things that could make you happy. When Scott returned he wasn’t alone, not all that shocking really. The pack was so on edge that any little sound could have them running to him, it was still nice though to see them relaxed as they entered his room.

“You can move.” Isaac cried happily. 

Stiles nodded. “Yeah and as soon as Melissa gets this damned catheter out of me, I am moving. I don’t care if you have to drag me by my armpits until my legs work properly, I want out.”

Isaac laughed but nodded. “Sure thing man, we can go outside.”

Stiles sighed at the thought of being outside, of being anywhere but this room again. Looking to Derek he told the Alpha. “This room is nice and all, but if I never see it again I’m okay with that.”

Derek smirked. “I can paint it for next time.”

Stiles gave the Alpha an irritated look. “Haha, jackass. Won't be a next time and you haven't painted a single room in this place since you moved in so I’m going to call your bluff on that one.”

Derek nodded his head, the teen wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t gotten around to making the place ‘homly’ as the teens stated he needed too. Derek didn’t see much point in it when he was fine with how it was, he knew it was only a matter of time before they did something without his say so. For now, he was just happy that things were getting back to some semblance of normalcy and if that meant painting a room, then so be it.

Scott came in and smiled. “She’s going to be right over once she’s off her shift.”

Stiles whined at that before he asked in a dreaded tone. “How long?”

Smirking at his impatient friend Scott said in a sheepish voice. “Sorry buddy, you got at least two hours.”

“Fuck...Stupid sick people.”

The others laughed at the boy's remark.

Scott shook his head, dryly muttering. “Yeah, how dare they need a nurse.”

Stiles ignored his friend's sarcasm, instead, choosing to reply. “I know, so rude, right? I mean I knew her first, I call dibs.” He countered. 

Scott laughed. “I’ll make sure to tell my mom that.”

Stiles flushed, quickly begging his friend. “Please don’t.”

Scott laughed at him and didn’t say anything more about it, leaving Stiles to whine about him being a cruel friend.

“Well, I suppose we should fix breakfast and wait for Scott’s mom to come.”

Erica chimed in, the others nodded to her and one by one filed out of the room. Leaving Isaac in charge of watching Stiles, the pair sat together in companionable silence for all of a minute before Stiles whispered.

“As soon as I’m mobile, I’m breaking out of here.”

Isaac snorted. “We can go into the woods for a while Stiles, no worries.”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the blondes attempts to pacify him. “I want to go home Isaac, even if it's just for a night.”

The boy looked hesitant, he and the others had already talked about the boys coming shift. They weren’t certain that Stiles would shift on the eclipse or around it, there was just not enough information about him to know for certain. This close to the eclipse meant that Stiles could change at any time.

“Your dad-”

“I know, but I’m going to have to tell him some time and I’d rather just get it over with and have a night with just us before this all happens. There’s still two nights before the eclipse so it’ll be safe.”

Sighing Isaac didn’t want to be the one to tell Stiles what they truly thought about it all, so he bought time. “We’ll check with the others first.”

Stiles gave him a pained look as if he thought Isaac was betraying him, it hurt Isaac to see that look but he held as firm as he could in the face of Stiles pained expression. “If they say it's okay then it's okay, but we don’t want you or anyone else getting hurt Stiles and there’s a lot going on.”

Stiles nodded his head, he understood the others trepidation about everything, truly he did. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to have some time to talk to his dad about everything, he needed to do this on his own.

“I know...I just want to be able to tell him without the pressure of it having already happened, without worrying about shifting on him.”

Isaac nodded. “I know, we’ll make it work okay?”

Stiles gave a small nod of his head, though Isaac could tell he was more subdued since their talk. The Beta felt bad for that, but he didn’t want to get his friends hopes up. They had to make sure no one would get hurt.

 

**********************

 

Melissa’s arrival couldn’t have been better timing, Stiles was just about to drive them all up a wall. The nurse smiled as if sensing the reason for the pack’s irritation all through the scowl that was on Derek’s face as he answered the door.

“I'm guessing he’s ready to break out of here?”

“You have no idea.” Derek muttered as he escorted her to the room.

Melissa smirked as she trailed behind the werewolf. “He’s been my patient before, I’m well aware of his issues.” Derek snorted at that, though she didn’t know why. 

Upon entering the room she smiled. “I hear someone can move their legs?” Stiles wiggled his toes to show off earning himself a laugh from Melissa for his childish reply. “Good, alright. Let me get set up and then we’ll get you all taken care of.”

Stiles nodded his head eagerly. He wasn’t excited about having her touch him, but being free, that he was excited for. It didn’t take long before the nurse was ready. Supplies set out and with her gloves on, she told the pack. “Alright, unless he wants you in here, you’ve got to wait outside.”

Stiles didn’t even let her say a word more before he barked out. “Get out or I swear I will put wolfsbane in your underwear drawers.”

The pack laughed as the left the room,  Scott smiled at his friend as he reached to close the door.

“We’ll be outside when you're done.”

Stiles nodded his head before making a shooing motion with his hands. Shaking his head, Scott shut the door. 

Melissa smiled at him. Stiles swallowed before saying. “I’m going to close my eyes now, uh don’t take that personally.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “You do whatever makes you comfortable sweetie.”

“Good...Yeah closing my eyes.”

She smirked as he scrunched up his face.  “I’m going to pull your pants down now.”

“Oh god, this is embarrassing.” Stiles felt his face grow hot as the blush spread across his cheeks.

Melissa didn’t comment on that, instead, she reached forward and ignored the boys flinch. Gently she pulled the material down to better access the boy's penis and the catheter.

“I’m going to start-”

“Just do it, don’t want to know.” Stiles stuttered out as his face grew hotter.

“Alright. Just breath for me.”

“Breathing...Totally breathing.”

Smirking Melissa gently moved the catheter a bit before slowly pulling it free. Stiles hissed at that before he started to apologize as he realized he didn’t have complete control of himself.

“Its normal Stiles, just relax.”

Stiles nodded his head and let her do her thing, cleaning him up and tossing the contaminated catheter into biohazard bags. Once she was done did she right his clothing.

“Alright, all done.”

Stiles sighed, opening his eyes he refused to look at her as he muttered. “Thank you.”

Smiling at the embarrassed boy she patted his leg. “No problem. One of the boys should help you to the bathroom. Its best if you empty your bladder now that the catheter is out, fair warning it might sting now that it’s been irritated from the catheter.”

Stiles nodded his head jerkily, he didn’t want to continue this train of conversation. 

Seeing the boys further mortification, Melissa moved off of the sensitive subject and simply cautioned the boy. “You’re going to be a little weak on your feet, so don’t be embarrassed if you need them to support you.”

Stiles grimaced as he heard her thoughts on his present condition. “God I hate this.”

Shaking her head Melissa rose and opened the door, smiling at the waiting pack. “All done, someone needs to help him to the bathroom though. Don’t leave him alone, he could fall.”

Scott nodded and passed his mom. “Ready to get up?”

Stiles nodded silently at first, not sure if he was prepared to even talk after what he’d just gone through. With a little help from Scott he swung his legs over the side of the bed,  Stiles looked up at his longtime friend. Mulling over the idea of just letting Scott carry him, he quickly discarded that idea, he’d been scarred more than enough for one day.

Quickly Stiles told his friend as Scott tried to lift him. “I’m gonna try and get up by myself.”

Scott nodded though his body posture tensed up as his hands came out, ready for Stiles to grab onto him if needed or for him to grab onto the boy if he fell. The pack watched on as Stiles grimaced and pushed himself up, he immediately crashed into Scott’s torso, Scott's hands coming around to hold the boy to him. 

Stiles sighed, muffling into his friend's shirt. “Well, I’m not on the floor.”

Scott chuckled. “Nope, you are still vertical. Good job.”

Stiles snorted. “This is so not a manly hug.”

The pack chuckled at the boy's lame retort, Scott shook his head. “Alright, I’m gonna help you stand up and see if you can walk.”

Stiles nodded against his friend's chest. Scott gently levered Stiles away from him. The boy's hands grasped his forearms in vice-like grips. Afraid to fall if his legs gave out again. They tremored something awful. Grimacing Stiles said around gritted teeth, shaking his head frantically back and forth.

“Not gonna work.”

Scott nodded his head and brought his friend against him once more as he looked to his mother for help. She smiled gently. “He’ll get the strength back the more he tries. Try walking with him Scott, you move, then Stiles moves his legs to close the distance. He can lean on you and you can support his weight. The repetitive motions will get his legs back in order.”

Scott nodded and did just that, taking the barest of steps back before making Stiles shuffle his uncoordinated legs and feet forward. 

Stiles sighed at how hard such a simple movement was, as frustrating as it was and as much as he wanted to continue trying a more pressing issue interrupted him and Scotts attempts to get his legs to work. “I’m all for this, sure it will work and all...But I got to pee.”

Scott laughed at his friend's blatant honesty. “Alright, practice later then.”

“Yes please.”

Scott wrapped an arm around Stiles and easily lifted the boy up to leverage him over his shoulder. Stiles laughed as he was carried like a sack of potatoes. “Well then, this is new.”

Scott snorted as he headed for the door. “you said you needed to pee, I can get you there faster if I carry you.”

Stiles shrugged as much as he was able in his present position, with a wry grin he patted Scott’s back. “True, lead on my noble steed.”

“Stiles shut up.”

The pack heard Stiles laughter as the pair headed down the hallway. 

Shaking her head Erica muttered. “Hope he gets his legs back, cause I am not helping with that.”

Melissa smiled at the teen. “I think the boys can handle that.”

The afer mentioned boys nodded, some more genuine than others.

 

******

 

Stiles got a bit of vertigo when Scott righted him, but being the awesome friend Scott was, the werewolf held firm to him. Letting him breathe through it until Stiles nodded that he was alright. They shuffled over to the toilet before Stiles muttered.

“Uh, so I guess sitting would be best?” The boy had a blush to his cheeks even as he spoke. 

Scott snorted and didn’t mince words. “I can hold you under the armpits dude. So long as you can take care of the rest, were good.”

Stiles looked relieved, nodding. “Yeah, let's do that.”

It took a bit of adjustment, but they finally ended with Stiles facing the toilet, Scott's torso against his back. The werewolf holding the boy under the armpits to keep him upright and his head buried in his friend's shoulder blades to hide Stiles from view.

“Can you get your pants?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Scott heard rustling before Stiles mentioned. “This is going to suck, just saying.”

“It already does, just do it.”

Smirking Stiles finally let go of his bladder and winced as there was some burning. No doubt the catheter tube having scratched the inside of him just like Melissa had warned him. He had more pee in him than he thought possible since the catheter was supposed to take care of that. All the same, it felt amazing to get it all out. Once his bladder was pleasantly empty did the boy clean himself up and pull his pants back up. 

“I’m good.”

Scott nodded against his back before he leaned Stiles against him more to flush the toilet before the pair went to the sink. Once they were washed they headed back towards Stiles room. On the way back though they did the agonizing process of step walking, Stiles focusing on making his legs close the little distance between him and Scott. Scott was smirking at his friend's progress, but Stiles was biting his lip.

“You’re doing good.”

Stiles grunted at that and kept walking. It was slow going, but they finally reached the room. The pack having moved out of the way prior to their return. Melissa watched as Scott walked Stiles back to the bed and helped him sit. 

Stiles sighed upon finally settling back down onto the bed, his legs giving small aches from being used after so long.

“Okay, how was it?” Stiles glanced at her in a perplexed manner.

“How was it?” Stiles had a frustrated look on his face as he waved at his legs. “How’d you think it was, it sucked.”

She smirked good-naturedly before pointing out. “Did relieving your bladder hurt Stiles?”

Stiles blushed, having mistaken what the nurse was asking him about. “Oh...Uh, it burned a bit, nothing major.”

She nodded. “That’s normal and should go away in a day...” Melissa paused as she had to remind herself that Stiles was no longer constrained to a human’s healing, shaking her head she smiled. “Nevermind. It’ll go away.”

Stiles grinned at her, catching onto her realization that he’d heal faster than her normal patients. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

“Its no problem Stiles. Try and take it easy though huh? No more crashing vehicles or being kidnapped by insane people. I don’t think I could take that again.”

Stiles laughed. “You and me both, Nah I think I’ll stick to working on walking again.”

“You’ll get it in no time. Your legs will strengthen the more you use them.”

Stiles waved at her. “I got this.”

Smirking she turned to Scott and said. “Walk me out.”

The teen nodded and followed after his mom. Once she was gone, Stiles fell back against the bed. 

Isaac snorted at his friend's dramatics. “Really dude, I thought you’ve had enough of the bed.”

Stiles tilted his head back and glared at him. “My legs are jello, so unless your volunteering to support me while I grandpa walk around, shut up.”

Isaac laughed at him before saying. “You want to go outside?”

Stiles perked up at that, the idea of leaving the loft even for just five minutes sounded amazing. Screw how tired his legs already felt, he really could use some fresh air.

“Put some shoes on him.” Derek said as he turned to leave.

“Hey! I can put my own damn shoes on thank you very much.”

Derek twisted to smirk at him. “Go grab them then.”

Stiles froze when he realized that he didn’t, in fact, know where his shoes were, let alone how to get to them without someone supporting him. He scowled at the smirking Alpha. “Asshole.”

Smirking Derek walked off down the hallway, shaking his head at the pair of them, Isaac went and retrieved some socks and shoes. Handing them over to let Stiles dress himself. 

Once Stiles was done, Isaac came forward and nodded. “Stand up and I’ll catch you.”

Smirking Stiles said. “Promise?”

Isaac nodded his head. Stiles forced himself back to his feet and managed to hold himself for about half a second before Isaac was catching him. 

Stiles slumped heavily against the teen. “Well, this is going well.” He muttered. 

Isaac chuckled. “You’re fine dude. Come on, I’ll start walking and you start the grandpa shuffle.”

Stiles laughed but nodded. Bit by bit they headed for the door, Erica and Boyd watched them go. 

Looking to Boyd she remarked. “Is it bad of me to want to take pictures of that?”

Boyd was silent a moment before he said. “A little.”

Erica smirked as she glanced to the now empty doorway. “I’m okay with that.”

 

*****************************

 

When Stiles and Isaac made it into the loft space Stiles called their movement to a sudden halt.

“What do you need to sit...There's not-” Isaac was worried when Stiles suddenly refused to move, but before he could get any answers to his questions Stiles spoke. 

“It's so empty.” He glanced about in awe, he’d never seen the loft-like this before. Derek had moved the majority of the furniture overnight, most likely because he hadn’t wanted to allow Erica to have a say in how he decorated the place. None of them really minded that, but seeing it so bare was...Strange.

Isaac smirked. “Well yeah, what’d you think we were doing in here?”

Stiles shrugged before commenting. “I don’t know, playing twister.” Isaac snorted at the lame excuse, Stiles twisted this way and that before he asked. “Where is all the stuff?”

Isaac was cut off from answering when Derek walked in from the kitchen. “It's in the storage space below.”

Stiles blinked at him a few times before a levacious grin spread across his face. “So you do have a basement.”

Derek smirked, knowing where the teens head was going he quickly amended. “Storage.”

Stiles pouted when the Alpha caught onto him. “Whatever...Your place is naked man.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the boy. “Better than getting my couch tore up.”

Stiles smirked back at the Alpha. “And cat hair, just imagine the cat hair..”

Derek shook his head as he walked across the room. “That too.”

“Alright, breaks over. Come on.” Isaac started walking and Stiles had to stumble to keep pace.

“Slave driver.”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “You won't get your legs back if you don’t walk. So walk.”

Isaac expected a rebuttal of some kind from Stiles, he didn’t expect the one he got.

“Derek your Beta’s being mean to me.”

Isaac looked at him with wide eyes as Stiles grinned back at him. 

They heard Derek snort before he called out. “Good job Isaac.”

“Hey!” Stiles cried out. 

Isaac laughed as he forced the boy to keep walking, when they made it outside they were greeted by a smiling Scott. “Well look at you”

“I know, I look like some decrepit grandpa being walked around.”

Scott chuckled. “Well no...Kinda...Okay yeah, a bit.”

Stiles glared at his friend.

“We're going for a walk in the woods” Isaac chirped.

Scott raised a brow to that. “Uh is that such a good idea? I mean you’ve barely mastered walking on flat surfaces.”

Stiles glared at him. “I want to go in the woods, we’re going into the woods.”

Scott sighed, holding up his hands in defeat before nodding. “Alright, if you really want to. I suppose I should tag along if your intent on doing that.”

Isaac frowned. “I can take care of him.”

Scott smirked at the indignant Beta. “I know you can, I’m just tagging along in case you get tired.”

Isaac snorted at the other teen's lame excuse for tagging along. “I’m a werewolf too ya know, that was a lie.”

Stiles laughed at Scott being called out, twisting his head he said. “Just admit that you don’t want to lose sight of me just yet.”

Sighing Scott muttered. “Fine, I’m a little on edge, you happy?”

“Ecstatic.” Stiles retorted happily. 

They inched their way further from the house and deeper into the woods. The longer they walked, Stiles' legs reacted more, but they also grew tired. It was shortly after they had turned to head back that Stiles said. “I-I can't walk anymore.” He grit his teeth not only because his legs were moments away from folding underneath him, but because of how embarrassing it was to need this much help.

Isaac frantically nodded. “Okay...Okay, no problem.”

“Here.”

They turned to see Scott knelt down. “Scott?”

“Put him on my back, I can piggyback him back to the house.”

Stiles sighed. “Seriously?”

“It's either that or I carry you like a sack of flour.”

Stiles glanced at Isaac. “Well, what are you waiting for, put me on his back.”

Isaac chuckled alongside Scott. Isaac helped Stiles get situated before Scott grabbed Stiles legs and stood. Stiles wrapped his arms around Scott’s neck and put his head down on the werewolf's shoulder, giving a tired sigh.

“Onward noble stead.”

“Stiles.” He growled. 

Stiles chuckled. “Okay okay...Onward werewolf?”

Snorting Scott started walking back. 

“You’re legs were getting stronger.” Isaac remarked casually. 

Stiles twisted his head to look at him. “I know...But they just got too tired.”

“No problem dude, you’re making progress.”

Stiles nodded his head. “I know...I was just hoping that I could go home and talk with my dad is all and I kinda need my legs to do that.”

Scott frowned. “Why?”

“Umm cause you need legs to walk?”

Scott snorted. “Not that Stiles, why do you want to talk to your dad right now?”

“I wanted to tell him about...All of it.”

Scott nodded his head. “You can tell him later-”

“Later I’ll be a Bastilli, I’m already not human Scott.” Stiles paused, trying to wrap his brain around what he wanted to say and what he didn’t want to say. Ultimately he settled with muttering. “Not with quills and second skins and shit...I don’t want to risk shifting in front of him afterward...Even if I can control it. I just wanted to be able to be his son for a moment more.”

Scott gritted his teeth at that, he hated the somber tone in Stiles voice. Like he wouldn’t get to keep his dad after this all happened.

“It's going to be okay Stiles. Your dads gonna be concerned, but he’s not going to freak out and disown you.”

Stiles snorted, he didn’t think his dad would go that far but it was asking an awful lot of the man to make him deal with this shit on top of everything else. He wouldn’t put it past his dad to distance himself or push Stiles onto the pack rather than deal with him at home. “He’s dealt with a lot Scott,  more than he should have too. I got him into this mess in the first place and-”

“We.”

“Huh?”

“We got him into this.”

Stiles sighed, that was one argument that wasn’t about to die anytime soon. “Sure.”

Scott frowned as he walked ahead. “Let me call him when we get back.”

“Why?”

“So he can come over and you can talk. It won't be the same I know, you wanted to do it at home for one reason or another...But it’ll work right?”

Stiles was silent a moment before he nodded against his friend's shoulder, it was better than nothing he supposed and at the moment he didn’t have a lot to bargain with. 

“Yeah...It’ll work.”

Scott shared a look with Isaac before the trio walked in silence the rest of the way to the loft.

 

***************************

 

Derek looked up from the book he was reading and raised a brow when he saw Scott carrying Stiles.

“What happened?” He queried with a furrowed brow. 

Scott shook his head. “He made it all the way out there, but his legs got tired coming back.”

Derek nodded his head, inwardly relaxing when he realized that it hadn’t been something else. Scott knelt down and Isaac helped Stiles to his feet once more. The boy's legs were trembling, but Isaac kept a hold of him while Scott stood up. They each took a side and helped brace the boy. 

Stiles sighed wearily, though they couldn’t tell if that was because of how tired his legs were or because of what he was asking. “Is it okay if my dad comes by?”

Derek nodded. “ You don’t need to ask that Stiles.”

The boy smiled a bit before saying. “Uh, when he gets here if you guys could...At least pretend not to hear shit that would be nice.”

Derek and the other wolves nodded.

“Alright.”

“Sure.”

“Yes.”

Stiles nodded and with a jerk of his head, Isaac took up the brunt of the boy's weight and headed back towards the bedroom. Scott watched them shuffle along until they were inside the room.

Relatively alone with the other Alpha Scott sighed. “He wanted to go home to tell his dad, but his legs aren’t strong enough...I didn’t think it would be a good idea anyway.”

Derek nodded, agreeing with the other Alpha about that particular aspect of the current conversation. Sensing that there was more going on, Derek questioned. “So he’s going to tell him here then.”

Scott made a noise in his throat as he leaned against one of the support beams of the lofts space. “Yeah, not ideal, but he really wants to do this now.”

“Because?”

Scott sighed, glancing down the hallway as if he was afraid that Stiles would appear once more and interrupt them. No one was there, Scott shook his head at his own paranoia. “He’s afraid of shifting in front of his dad after its all said and done. He-he said he wanted to be able to tell him while he was still his son.”

Derek scowled at that, Scott nodded knowing exactly what Derek was thinking about his best friends train of thought. “I know...I think he thinks his dad will shun him or something...That this will be the thing to push the sheriff over the edge.”

Shaking his head Derek muttered. “That’s bullshit.”

“I know, but right now that’s what he feels like will happen. Hopefully, the sheriff will react like I think he will...I pray he does anyway...Cause Stiles stressing out right before the eclipse is not ideal for any of us.”

Derek sighed, the idea of Stiles losing it before the eclipse even arrived wasn’t something he particularly wanted to consider. It would just make everything that much more volatile, shaking his head and doing what little he could to cast such trouble thoughts aside Derek focused on the now. “Get his dad here, we’ll have to let them talk it out and deal with whatever comes afterward.”

Scott nodded his head and turned to go down the hallway, he paused a moment before asking. “If the shit hits the fan...Could he crash here a while? I know my mom wouldn’t mind and all, but we don’t know how stable he’ll be with his shift an-”

Derek looked back up, Scott wasn’t looking at him as he rambled. He was turned away, pointed towards the hallway and where Stiles was. “He’s pack, he can stay as long as he needs too.”

Scott’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Thanks Derek.”

Derek didn’t reply to that, but Scott didn’t figure he would. He carried on down the hallway to figure out if there was anything else he could do to help Stiles before his dad got there. When Scott entered the room, he found Stiles reclined once more in bed. He was smiling, but it didn’t really reach his eyes. Taking a breath Scott told his friend.

“Do you want to use my phone?”

Stiles nodded his head. Fishing out the device he walked over and handed it to his friend. Stiles swallowed nervously before pushing in the number. The pack watched as Stiles closed his eyes, waiting to see if his father would pick up. It wasn’t surprising to any of them that he answered so fast.

“Scott? Is everything alright?”

The wolves tensed, hearing the man’s worried tone through the phone though his words were lost on them.

Stiles winced at how afraid his father sounded, steeling himself Stiles rasped. “Hey, dad.”

“Stiles!”

Smirking Stiles replied. “Yeah, it's me.” That sounded rather lame, but Stiles pushed forward regardless. 

“God, it is so good to hear your voice again son.”

Stiles swallowed. “You too...Look I called cause I was hoping you could come over after your shift.”

“It's safe now? No more rituals?”

Smirking at his father's reference to Erica’s lies, Stiles shot the girl in question a look. Erica blinked a few times at him, but Stiles just shook his head at how clueless she was. Taking a bit of sick pleasure of stating. “No more rituals. Its- totally fine for you to come over. So will you?”

Erica smirked once she realized why Stiles had been looking at her, she had no regrets about lying for her friend's sake.

“Of course I will son, I’ll be over as soon as I’m done with my shift. Can I bring you anything?”

“No..No that’s not necessary I’m fine.”

“Are you okay?” There was hesitation in the man’s voice as if he’d caught onto something. 

Stiles wasn’t sure if that was true or not, though he supposed that if there was anyone who could call his bluff it would be his dad. Stiles looked up at the ceiling, the teen replied. “I’m fine...I just really want to see you.”

“I can come no-”

“No, finish your shift. It can wait...I’m kinda beat actually so I was going to take a rest before you get here...Are you working late today?”

There was a pause as if the sheriff was unsure if he should say anything to the boy's wavering tone, but he finally spoke up. “No, I’ll be done here by four.”

“Okay, great...I’ll see you later then. Be careful and drive safe okay?”

“I will son, get some rest.”

“I will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Stiles ended the call and blindly handed the phone back to Scott. His hand falling back to the bed the second it was taken from him.

“Stiles?” Isaac whispered. The boy shook his head, refusing to look at them all.

“I’m fine...I’m just tired. I-I think I’m going to try and take a nap.”

They all knew he was lying and Stiles knew they knew he was lying. No one brought it up.

“Alright, do you want a blanket?”

Stiles shrugged his shoulders as he tried to get comfortable for his ‘fake nap’. He soon found himself being tucked in by Erica, a warm blanket wrapped around him. Stiles sighed and muttered a quiet ‘thank you’ to her, his eyes already drifting closed. The pack shifted nervously, unsure what to do. Scott ignored the Beta’s instead choosing to tell Stiles.

“We’re gonna go work on the loft, you rest up okay. Shout if you need us.”

Stiles opened his eyes to stare at his friend a moment. “All of you?”

Scott nodded. “Unless you want some-”

“No...No, I’m fine. Go.”

Scott nodded, looking to the Beta’s he jerked his head towards the door. Luckily no one fought him on it, they glanced repeatedly towards Stiles on their way out though. Scott shut the door behind him and sighed.

“Are you sure we-”

“He needs some time. Come on.”

Pushing away from the door Scott headed down the hallway. Erica pursed her lips before following after the Alpha. Boyd put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder and pulled the boy along. No one wanted to leave Stiles, but they knew that Scott was right. He needed some time.

 

*********************************

 

The entire pack was tense as they sat around the nearly empty loft space. They were all eager to go and comfort Stiles but abided by Scott and Derek who had both told them to stay put. To let Stiles think and process what was going on. When they heard the boys sobbing, the Alpha’s had to use their control of the Beta’s to stop them from running to the boy's side despite their own urges to rush to the teen’s side.

“Sit.”

They did so, but they weren’t happy. Though it appeared that both Derek and Scott weren’t happy about having to give the order either. They shifted about, making sure that the Beta’s did as they were told. Pacing almost as they all listened to the heartbreaking sounds of Stiles ‘processing’ what was going on.

“He’s going to freak the hell out when his dad gets here.” Isaac muttered. 

For a moment no one said anything, but finally, Derek spoke up. “Probably, but if that’s what he needs to do, then that’s fine.”

Isaac sighed and winced alongside the rest of the pack when a particular sob reached their ears.

“Can’t we...I don’t know. Do something?” Erica whispered, a desperate edge to her voice.

Scott shook his head, though it was hard for him to do so. “We can’t. There’s nothing to do Erica, he needs to talk things out with his dad. We’ll deal with whatever happens. Hopefully, we’ll just get to call him an idiot and move on.”

“He fears his father rejecting him.” Boyd stated bluntly. 

Scott nodded. “Yeah, he-he also made some comments to me and Isaac about wanting to do this while he was still his son...Still human. We already know Stiles’ not human, not with the healing he’s got, but Stiles knows he’s losing whatever makes him human and I guess he fears that he’ll lose the connection to his dad when the change is complete.”

Erica snorted. “That’s bullshit, we’ve all seen how much he cares for Stiles.”

Scott nodded. “I know...It’d be like my mom saying get out cause I’m a werewolf. It's just not going to happen. He’s just scared though. We just need to let this run its course and have his dad tell him he’s an idiot.”

The others nodded their heads.

If something did happen, he’ll stay here.” Derek brought up. 

The pack shifted before Isaac said. “That’s good...Does he know?”

Derek shook his head. “No, we’ll let the sheriff decide what’s going to happen. If he does become overwhelmed by this, Stiles will stay here with me. Chances are he might anyway, at least until he gets his shift under control.”

Isaac nodded. “Yeah, the sheriff wouldn’t be able to get a hold of him if he lost it.”

Derek nodded his head. “Exactly. Until he has control, it’ll be safer for him and the sheriff if Stiles remains here.”

“He won't like that.” Boyd commented. “He’s wanted to go home.”

“We don’t have a choice though.” Scott interjected. 

Boyd shrugged his shoulders to the Alpha. “You managed pretty well after you shifted.”

Scott snorted. “Yeah so well...” He sarcastically replied, with a shake of his head Scott stated. “No, we’re not chancing anything when we have a perfectly safe place for him to go nuts if he needs too.”

The boy nodded back to the Alpha, accepting his decision for his pack mate. Erica looked over to Derek and said in a dour tone. “Well, if he does, we might want to paint the room for him.”

Derek smirked. “You think that would make a difference?”

Erica snorted. “If his dad abandons him? Fuck no, but if he’s just stuck here until he gets a handle on things...It might help.”

Derek considers the girl's opinion a moment before looking over to Scott. “How much longer until the sheriff gets here?”

Scott looked down to his phone and sighed. “Like two hours.”

Shaking his head Derek listened for any sign the boy was moving about. He wasn’t, and the sobs were quieting. It appeared that at least for the time being things were quieting down, something that he told the pack.

“He’s worn himself out, let him sleep.”

They all nodded back to him. It took a few minutes for the pack to break up and actually start doing something other than listen to Stiles. With the boy appearing much calmer they were able to focus on other things for once though their minds were clouded by the fear of what was to come.

 


	17. The talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles dad comes to the pack house and the teen finally has to tell his dad what's really going on. The eclipse is nearly there, some of Stiles traits begin to appear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost there! Stiles transformation is soooo close. I hope you guys enjoy this weeks chapter.

Derek opened the door, he nodded to the sheriff as the man walked up. 

Noah smirked back at the werewolf that had answered the door before he’d even taken one step away from his car. “Never going to let me knock are you?” 

Derek smirked at the kind man. “Doubtful. Come in.”

The sheriff nodded and followed after Derek, he was surprised to see the entire pack in the loft space which was empty. Looking around at the now bare room, Noah frowned casting a confused gaze towards the owner of the house. “Uh, you moving? I thought Stiles said this was supposed to be a more permanent place for you.”

Derek shook his head. “No, I’m not going anywhere.”

The sheriff looked at him with a frown on his face, obviously wanting answers for the strange atmosphere he was sensing. Scott coughed though and got the man’s attention.

“So Stiles is down the hall...Which you already knew...Uh.” As if realizing that he was making things worse by being awkward and having no other means to make it better, Scott silenced himself.

“Scott?” The boy nodded his head, Noah frowned when the teen remained silent after that random tirade he’d just endured. “What's going on? Your acting weird and this-” he waved his hand to the empty space. “This isn’t normal.”

Scott nodded towards the sheriff who was now focused solely on him, with no way out Scott did his best to point the man in the right direction. “Stiles can explain everything sir, its why he wanted you to come over. So you two could talk about some things. It’ll make sense afterward.”

The sheriff tilted his head in a speculative manner before he nodded, this wasn’t the first time that he’d been given a situation like this before. Having a ‘you need to sit down for this’ talk wasn’t high on his happy list, but he didn’t balk at the teen's suggestion, he was all too eager to see his son now. “Alright, I’m going to go talk to him then.”

Scott smiled, though it seemed a tad forced to Noah. “We’ll be here when you are done.”

The sheriff nodded and headed down the hallway, the pack heard him knock on the door and call his son’s name before the door open and closed. 

Sighing Scott muttered. “How is it I can take on Alpha’s and other crap, but that man makes me feel like a seven-year-old again?”

The others smirked at him.

“Cause he’s Stiles dad, he’s the sheriff, and you look guilty as hell.” Erica retorted with no remorse.

Scott glared at her a moment before he sighed, she wasn’t wrong. “I feel guilty.”

“There’s nothing we could have done to prevent this Scott.” Derek told him seriously.

“I know...I mean I know, it's just I feel like if maybe things had been different...If one thing had been different... Would this have happened to him?”

The pack glanced back and forth between the two Alpha’s wondering what Derek would say to that.

Derek shook his head. “Thinking like that won't get you anywhere. We can't take back what happened, all we can do is help him move forward.”

 

*******************************

 

Noah smiled at the sight of his son, eagerly walking forward to sit on the edge of the bed.

“God its good to see you.”

Stiles smiled back at his father, his heart speeding up now that he was here. “You too...At least now I can talk right?”

Noah laughed. “Yeah, that does help us, good to hold a conversation. The one-sided thing wasn’t as amusing as you probably thought it was.”

Smirking for a moment, Stiles let the mirth slide from his face as he was faced with the reality that he needed to talk to his dad about all of it, now. Stiles sighed.

“Son?”

Shaking his head Stiles looked up to his dad. “I-I have some things to tell you.”

“Okay, sure.”

Reaching up he rubbed his head, Stiles smiled when his father's eyes widened.

“You can move again?”

Stiles nodded before giving his father a sheepish look. “Oh yeah...Sorry I thought Derek or them would have mentioned it when they let you in...I’m just lying down cause my legs are tired. Everything works.”

The teen moved both his legs and arms to show him that he wasn’t lying.

The sheriff let out a relieved sigh, a broad smile crossing his face. “That’s great...So you're all healed up then? Deaton's magic stuff worked.”

Stiles couldn’t help but snort, earning himself a frown from his father. Shaking his head Stiles finally got down to the task at hand. “Dad...There was no magic.”

Noah had a blank look on his face for all of a minute before he frowned and shook his head. “But Scott and Erica-”

“They lied.” His dad’s face hardened at that. “They just didn’t want to freak you out and I wasn’t ready to see you yet. I wanted to be me again...Not a half-paralyzed lump on a bed.”

His father gave a nod, but Stiles could tell he wasn’t impressed with him.

“Look that doesn’t matter...The point is Deaton didn’t heal me. There wasn’t any magic involved, but I am better. Th-”

“How?”

The firmness in his father's voice caused Stiles to reflexively swallow, it was like he was eight and about to be grounded for leaving that sprinkler in the neighbor's yard during winter...That hadn’t ended well for anyone.

When he was silent too long, Noah stated again. “How?”

Stiles swallowed nervously, shaking his head a moment in an effort to clear his own thoughts.

“How are you better, cause if you say that Scott or Derek bit you without your consent.”

Stiles' eyes widened and he shook his head, waving his arms in an abort manner. It was stupid of him to try and hold of the conversation as he had, the last thing anyone needed was his father thinking either of the wolves had turned him against his will.

“No, no dad...No one bit me. They wouldn’t do that to me. They would want me to choose for myself...Its...It's more complicated than that.”

The scowl on his fathers face lessened, but only a bit and Stiles knew that was only because he was no longer thinking homicidal thoughts towards the two werewolves. 

“The hunters.”

The scowl was back to death ray status, it left Stiles to sigh, there was no easy way to do this. It was with that mentality that the teen decided to rip off the proverbial bandaid. “The hunters, when they took me and...Tortured me...They used- they electrocuted me.” The look of horror on his fathers face had Stiles shaking his head once more and waving his hands all while stammering. “Not bad...Well not good, cause I don’t think there is such a thing as good electrocution...Anyways.” Stiles laughed a bit, the tense situation making his heart flutter as he tried to get the point of it all. “They did that and it left a lot of energy behind in me. Normally that would go away with time, but the stuff they gave me to make me appear dead...The stuff that tricked the pack and all, it reacted to the energy left over and it all energized my spark.”

His dads scowl slowly shifted from I’m mad too I’m just straight out confused. Smirking Stiles waited, though it didn’t take long for the questions to start up.

“okay...So you're telling me you were electrocuted by those men.” Stiles nodded, so far his dad was following along. “ And that left energy behind...Cause of the electricity right?”

“Yes.”

His father nodded. “And that plus whatever they pumped into you-.”

“Bastili venom.” Stiles helpfully supplied only to give his father a waning look when his dad blinked back at him in confusion. Stiles sighed. “Its a creature...Uh different from werewolves. It's actually a supernatural cat...From Egypt.”

Noah sighed, he had to remind himself to take one thing at a time and it was that which had him nodding his head. “Alright. So the electricity and this...Cat venom caused some sort of reaction in your body.”

“Well my spark did that, but yeah.”

“Your spark.” Noah drolled in a wary tone.

Stiles smiled, diving right into ‘education’ mode in the hopes of getting it all over with.

“Every creature has a spark. Most human’s don’t use there’s. It's hard to activate them and if you don’t nurture them they wither up? Something like that...Anyways. My spark wasn’t dormant all my life, I actually used it when I was a kid or so Deaton says...He thinks it had to do with mom. After she....” Stiles took a breath, trying to pace himself as he included his mother into the conversation even if it was only in passing. He could tell that his father was overwhelmed already, but there was no way that Stiles could just stop. Pressing on, the teen continued. “After, my spark used up all its energy in some attempt to make me okay? He wasn’t really clear on that, I’ll ask him later...But the point is I had a spark and the spark went dormant again after mom...Died. The torture and Bastili venom woke it up.”

Noah nodded slowly, mostly from the shock of hearing what his son was saying. “And what does that mean?”

“Mean’s those hunters were douchebags.” Stiles lamely replied.

“Stiles.”

Sighing Stiles looked into his lap. “A spark is energy, its magic, its...Life essentially. When mine woke back up and realized how hurt I was, it tried to do what it could to save me. To make sure I’d heal.”

“Okay, how’d it do that?”

Stiles grimaced, forcing himself to speak through a clenched jaw. “It found the Bastili venom in my blood and used it.”

Noah took a deep breath, he didn’t like the way this conversation was going. The way Stiles was talking, it left dread pooling in his stomach. “What happened?”

Looking up to his father Stiles said with a somber tone. “I’m not human anymore...Or won't be...I’m kinda in the middle I guess right now.” The shock on his fathers face had Stiles looking away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this could happen and I know its not my fault, but it kinda feels like it is cause if my stupid spark had just stayed asleep none of this would have happened. An-”

“Stiles.”

Clamping his eyes shut the teen nodded.

“What is happening to you?”

Letting out a choked sob the boy said. “I’m...I’m becoming a Bastili.”

The silence was deafening, Stiles could hear his own heartbeat racing inside his chest, the blood pumping in a deep whooshing in his ears. His breaths were coming in short jerky breaths as he tried desperately to stave off a panic attack. Stiles jerked when he felt his fathers hand on his leg. Looking up, tears going down his cheeks he stared at his father.

“you're becoming this...Cat creature?”

Stiles mutely nodded, when his father continued to stare at him with curious eyes Stiles licked his lips and found his voice. “Yeah...An Egyptian Bastili.”

His dad shook his head, but before Stiles could feel an ounce of terror of his father leaving him. His dad spoke up. “I don’t know what that is Stiles...Explain it to me.”

The fear that had been sparked by his father's subtle motion was quelled by the curiosity infecting his father's voice.“Okay...Okay yeah...It's uh a quadruped, from Egypt...Their pretty rare I guess and they have prides...Like a pack, but for cats...They can paralyze their prey, that’s why the hunters gave me the venom...So I’d be paralyzed. Other than that...I don’t know much.” Stiles was practically panting by the time he was done ranting, not that it appeared to faze his father much.

They stared at each other a moment before Noah asked. “Is it dangerous?”

Stiles got a befuddled look on his face right before he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I mean it can paralyze people dad...Its got claws and fangs and shit...It's not a house cat.”

His father smirked. “Okay, not what I meant Stiles...I meant is it like some of the other things we’ve come across or is it like werewolves? Is it friendly?”

Stiles sucked in a deep breath of air as he processed what his father was asking. Was he a threat. “I-I don’t know...I mean everything I’ve been told is kinda along the lines of don’t poke it and it leaves you alone.” The teen shrugged, he didn’t have anything else to go on at the moment and the lack of knowledge was killing him.

His father smirked. “Alright...Good. So it's not something we need to be worried about.”

Stiles shook his head at how easily his father was writing the whole situation off. “Dad, it's dangerous...It's territorial and a-”

“it's you, Stiles...It doesn’t matter what that thing is...It's you. You're going to be the one in control right? Just like Scott and the others control their wolf sides.”

Stiles nodded his head jerkily. “Yeah...If I can control it...No one has experience with this dad...What we learned from Deaton and Chris is enough for a notecard. It's not definitive on how it...How I’ll react when I shift. I don’t have a pride or whatever to keep me grounded I-”

“You have Scott and the others.”

Stiles shook his head, his dad wasn’t getting it. “Their wolves dad, and yeah I’m a part of the pack as a human...But even Chris said that it wouldn’t be enough to ground my Bastili side. That it has to form bonds on its own and that it might not like the wolves, that I could become dangerous if pushed. He wasn’t sur-.”

His father frowned at him. “Is...Chris isn’t going to do anything to you, I wo-”

“No, dad...At least not now.” Stiles flinched when he realized how bad that made Chris look and given the scowl his dad now wore, Stiles needed to fix it. “ I mean we're all hoping that I’ll figure this shit out and I won't be a threat to anyone... Scott and Derek are going to try and use their Alpha powers on me, but it might not work since I’m not a wolf. The packs going to keep me contained here when I shift...There’s some stuff that Deaton and Chris gathered to hopefully make my Bastili more...Docile.”

He motioned towards the dresser, his father glanced at it before looking back at Stiles.

“Okay, so its all taken care of then, you’ll practice like what Scott did and things will be okay.”

Stiles smiled sadly at his father, ever the optimist that one. “Maybe...If I get out...I could hurt someone. If I think their trespassing on my territory or whatever if I feel threatened. I’ll attack them, dad and humans, won't stand a chance against me. Hell, the pack might not either, we don’t know how strong my paralytic is against them.”

Noah sucked in a sharp breath, Chris didn’t appear to be a threat at least not right now. Stiles was right though, the hunter was going to be around and the pack could only do so much. The thought that he could lose Stiles this way made his very breath rattle in his lungs. Noah shook his head, leveling a steely expression onto his son. “I can’t lose you.”

Stiles drove right over his father's words, quickly ranting through his own frantic minds thoughts. “I’m sorry, I just...I wanted you to know everything, to know if something happens that it's not their fault okay. Its nobodies fault, but I won't live like this if it means hurting someone. I couldn’t live with myself if I did that if I hurt you or Melissa or anyone else. I couldn’t.”

Noah looked back up at his son, his eyes were misty. “I know that son, I know.”

Nodding his head fervently Stiles gave a shaky exhale. “I-I just wanted you to know everything...To be prepared. To apologize cause I’m so damn sorry for getting you involved in all of this and I never thought that something like this would happen...I didn’t want the bite, I didn’t want this and if you need to walk away I get it, I totally get it. I’m jus-”

Stiles blinked as he found himself suddenly embraced by his father. The man’s arms wrapped tightly around his back. Sighing he lifted his own arms and hugged his father back.

“I’m not leaving, I’m never leaving you.”

Stiles nodded his head against his father's shoulder. The pair held onto one another, quiet tears streaming down both their faces. Eventually, Noah pushed back, pulling Stiles far enough away to stare into his eyes once more.

“I don’t care what...What you are Stiles, you're my son. We’ll figure this out, me and Chris and the others we’ll figure this out.”

Stiles smiled a little. “They already did dad...Now we just have to wait and see.”

His father nodded, knowing there was nothing else to be done but wait. Then a thought came to mind, he didn’t know how long a wait they were in for. “Full moon?”

Stiles smirked, giving a watery chuckle. “Nah, I’m not so cliche.” His father laughed at that, which brightened Stiles spirits a bit. “Eclipse.”

His father’s eyes widened. “Isn’t there like one of those-”

“I know...That’s why Derek’s loft looks like he has no furniture, he doesn’t want to get cat hair everywhere.” The boy quipped. 

Noah gave his son a dour look. “I’m pretty sure he’s not worried about that Stiles.”

The boy shrugged. “You never know, at the very least we don’t have to worry about him being allergic to me.”

Shaking his head at his son, Noah patted the boy's shoulder. “So you're staying here then, they’ll watch over you and...”

“Keep me from hurting anyone...Yeah, that’s the plan.”

His father frowned before he stated in a resolute tone of voice. “You're not going to hurt anyone, it's not who you are.”

Stiles smiled wanly. “Who I am and who the Bastili is are a little different dad. Werewolves lose themselves all the time to the shift, especially their first one.”

The sheriff nodded his head, he’d heard that all before but he couldn’t compare those situations with that of his own son. Stiles wasn’t the type of person to hurt someone, supernatural abilities or no. “Alright, but at least you have them to guide you.”

Stiles nodded his head. “Yeah, that’s a definite plus.”

The sheriff sighed, as much as he didn’t want to put his son down he needed to voice his own concerns about something. “I’m a little disappointed in you I hope you know. You could have told me all of this from the beginning instead of keeping me away.”

Stiles smiled sadly. “I wasn’t ready.”

The man nodded despite the hurt he felt at his son confiding in him. “Alright, alright...That’s your choice, but next time...Don’t hide from me.”

Stiles nodded his head, but instead of giving into his father's demands retorted. “Okay...The next time I get turned into a supernatural creature against my will, I’ll text you.”

The sheriff glared at his smirking son, shaking his head Noah asked. “How soon until I can come back and check on you?”

Stiles looked pained at that question. “I-I don’t know...I mean I’d love it if it was the next morning, but dad we don’t know how much control I’ll have. Anger, fear, any type of stress can trigger shifts. So until I get a handle on this...Just let Scott keep you posted okay? I’ll call you too when I’m able.”

The sheriff looked sad about that but dutifully nodded his head. “Alright, son. I’ll wait for you to tell me when you're ready.”

Stiles smiled. “Thanks, dad...Hopefully, it won't be long and you can start complaining about me shedding in the house.”

The sheriff snorted. “As wrong as that sounds, compared to half the shit I’ve experienced since you found a pack of werewolves...That seems tame.”

Stiles laughed. It was nice to hear his father joking about the shit storm that was their lives, it helped to relieve some of the guilt he felt for bringing his father into all of this. A part of him secretly wished his father had just left, just gotten away from while he could. Before anything bad could happen. Stiles feared that by the time he realized what a monster his son was becoming, it would be too late.

 

****************************

 

The pack was tense as they waited for news on how things were going in Stiles room, the insolation prevented them from hearing the conversation unless their voices were raised. They were not.

“At least no one’s yelling.” Issac supplied quietly. 

Scott nodded. “Yeah...Stile’s dad isn’t one for yelling though...If there was something wrong we’d hear Stiles not him.”

The others nodded, listening once more for any sign that the boy might be in distress. Their heartbeats weren’t a reliable source at the moment, both fluctuating from one moment to the next. 

“So how long do we wait?” Erica asked nervously, she was eager to intrude not because she was curious about the conversation itself, but because she wanted to be near their injured pack mate.  

Scott shook his head. “Until they’re done, this is something Stiles wanted to do alone. We only interrupt if something seems off.”

The girl glanced once more down the hallway, Scott couldn’t tell if she was relieved that there was nothing going on or if she was hoping that something would signal them to go down there. Sighing he turned to Derek, the older Alpha was leaning against the kitchen counter.

No one would be able to tell from just looking at him that he was apprehensive about Stiles talking with his father. The truth was, Derek believed that this could make or break Stiles. If his father walked out on him they were going to have a hell of a time giving him some reason to ground himself. When he caught on to Scott looking at him he raised a brow, silently asking what the other Alpha wanted. Scott shrugged his shoulders. Rolling his eyes Derek glanced out the kitchen window. He knew the entire pack was on edge, waiting for any sign that Stiles needed them. The desire to protect a pack mate flaring as they knew how important this was, but Stiles had wanted to inform his father alone. The pack would abide by the boy's decision and hope for the best for him.  Derek’s head jerked around when they heard the door open down the hallway. 

The smooth steps of the sheriff drawing nearer and nearer until the man appeared, he looked over to Isaac and said. “Stiles wants you.”

The boy nodded and was off like a shot, the sheriff glanced after the boy with a faint smirk. Looking back to Derek and Scott he said. “Walk me out to my car.”

The two Alphas nodded and followed after the man. Scott gave a jerk of his head and Erica and Boyd fled down the hallway to join Stiles and Isaac. The trio paused just shy of the police cruiser. The sheriff was still, quiet, and refused to meet their eyes as he stared off into the forest. Swallowing Scott was about to ask what had happened when the man spoke.

“Don’t you dare let anything happen to him.”

The Alpha’s stood up straighter at that. 

“Sir.” Derek intoned politely. 

The sheriff looked at him. His eyes were a little irritated like he had been crying, a cool fear began to climb up Derek’s throat. Was the sheriff really abandoning Stiles?

“You take care of my son, I don’t care what it takes or what you have to do, but you do it.”

Noah turned to Scott next. “If I don’t get a call from you the morning after that damned eclipse I will reign hellfire on you Scott mcCall. Do you hear me? You tell me what happened, how he did...You tell me if he’s okay.”

Scott nodded his head fervently. “We won't let anything happen to him...And I’ll call as soon as he’s out for the night...Er day..”

The sheriff nodded. “Good. I won't come back until Stiles tells you he feels its safe, but if you don’t answer your phone if you don’t call me back...I will risk it, I don’t give a damn if I’m walking into a wolves den. I will come to find my son.”

The Alpha’s nodded towards him.

“We’ll keep you informed of what happens sir, we won't let anything happen to him.”

The sheriff sighed before nodding his head and making his way around to the door of his cruiser. Once it was open did he call out to them.

“Don’t let him hate himself...Don’t let him be scared of himself.”

Derek nodded his head towards the man, Scott and Derek watched him get in his car and drive away. They stood there a moment before Scott said in a bare whisper.

“We can do this right?”

“We’re going to have too.”

Derek turned and headed back towards the loft, sighing Scott turned and followed after him.

 

*******

 

Issac all but ran towards Stiles room. Eager to see his friend, all the while unsure with what he would find. He was relieved to find the boy reclining on the bed, Stiles looked up when Isaac came in.

“Hey.”

Issac smiled. “Hey.”

They stared at each other a moment before Stiles scooted over on the bed. Issac didn’t need any further prompting, he climbed up beside him and laid down. They’d all gotten used to snuggling up to the boy while he was paralyzed and just cause he could move once more didn’t change that one of the best ways they’d found to soothe their friend was to have physical contact with him. Stiles sighed as Isaac got comfortable next to him.

“You okay?”

Stiles gave a breathy laugh. “No, not really.”

Issac nodded his head, waiting for the boy to give him some clue as to what to do or say to help him. Stiles looked up finally from his hands which had been playing with the drawstrings on the sweatpants he wore. “My dad is stupidly awesome and I love him for it, but...What if it gets him killed?”

Issac shook his head, unsure how they’d gone from his father visiting to death in such a short span of time. “No, no Stiles...Nothings going to happen to your dad. He’s perfectly healthy, he’s a cop, he knows how to defend himself-”

“From humans.” Came the slightly bitter remark.

Isaac was at a loss for a moment before he collected himself enough to nod. “Yeah, but he’s got us for the rest of it.”

Stiles sighed and started fiddling with the drawstring once more. “Will you protect him from me?”

Issac froze. Swallowing to try and clear the lump that had formed in his throat at the boy's request.

“I-I won't have too, you're not going to hurt him.”

Stiles shook his head, finally voicing one of the looming fears he had. “I might. What happens if I can't control this if I shift when no one’s there to stop me? He’ll get hurt. I could kill him Isaac.”

The teen stared at Stiles a moment, stunned by what his friend had said. He knew from experience how uncontrollable the shift could be when stressed. Nothing Stiles was saying was so far fetched, which just made it all the harder for him to combat it.

“We’re not going to let you hurt people Stiles, least of all your dad. We’ll make sure you’ve got a handle on things before we let you go out in public or stay the night back with your dad. Derek already said you’ll most likely be crashing here a while.”

Stiles' eyes widened, this was news to him. “He did?”

Issac nodded a tentative smile coming to his face once more. “Yeah, it's a safe place for you to learn and your pack so it's not like he’s bothered by letting you stay. You belong here just as much as I do or Erica or Boyd.”

Stiles had a faint smile on his face at that. “Oh...I didn’t know.”

“That’s cause you're being stupid.”

Both Isaac and Stiles twisted to see Erica smirking at them from the doorway, Boyd right behind her. 

“Hi.”

She smiled. “Hi, Stiles. Shove over.”

Frowning, the boy made a squeak when the werewolf came over and shoved at him, Isaac laughed and scooted back to allow Stiles room to move. Erica climbed onto the bed on the other side of Stiles, sandwiching him in between the two Beta’s. Boyd came next, laying down behind Erica. The four of them could barely fit on the bed, arms were linked over each other to brace each other from falling off the side. It was comfy though, warm. 

Stiles sighed before he spoke up. “Thanks.”

No one said anything about his thanking them, probably because they felt it wasn’t needed. Either way they settled together on the bed wrapped around one another. Stiles didn’t even realize he was falling to sleep, his eyes getting heavier and heavier the longer he was surrounded by the warm bodies of the pack. Secure and safe, knowing that nothing could get to him and if something did...It would be dealt with. Smirking the boy drifted off to the thoughts of how the pack protected its own and that he was one of them.

 

*************************

 

When Scott and Derek entered the loft they expected to hear the soft voices of the pack talking to Stiles, but there was nothing. Frowning the two Alpha’s looked at each other a moment before heading down the hallway to check on their pack.  Coming just inside the door they found the Beta’s surrounding Stiles on the bed. The boy’s head tucked in against Isaac’s chest, his eyes closed.

“He fell asleep pretty fast.” Erica whispered so as to not disturb the boy. 

Derek nodded. “Good, he should rest while he can, me and Scott will finish the loft space.”

Glancing to Boyd Derek asked. “Could you make something for dinner?”

The man nodded his head. “Sure.”

“Something with protein...He’s going to need the energy and we’ll need it too if we're going to be wrangling him.” Scott uttered with only a bit of nervousness in his voice. 

Boyd nodded. “I can figure something out, do you need my help in the loft right now?”

Derek and Scott looked at each other, but before they could answer the Beta. Erica patted Boyd’s thigh.

“We got Stiles, you go help them with that before you worry about feeding all of us.”

Boyd nodded and slid out of the bed. The Alphas turned to leave now that it had been decided, trusting that Erica and Isaac could keep Stiles comfortable. Boyd shut the door on his way out to help shield any noise they might make. 

Once more alone with the human boy, Erica shifted to get more comfortable and whispered. “Is he okay?”

At first, Isaac said nothing but the longer he stayed silent the harder it was to not voice what had happened. “He...He’s scared of hurting people...His dad.”

Erica sighed as she heard what Isaac had told her. They’d done their best to assuage Stiles fears, but until he survived his first shift they wouldn’t know what they were dealing with. It wasn’t so insane to be afraid that this strange creature he was changing into might be too much for them. That he could end up hurting someone.

“Do you think he will?”

Came the quiet question from the other side of Stiles. Erica had a hard time not shouting at Isaac but reeled in her response to whisper in a slightly aggravated tone. “Of course not! He’s just scared Isaac. I’m sure Scott and Derek will be able to reel him in if we can’t.”

There was a dreary silence that followed her answer and for a time she wondered if he was going to question her. She was, how did she know how things were going to go? That Derek and Scott would hold any sway over the Bastili that Stiles would become. She didn’t. None of them did.

“His dad took it well.”

Erica let out a small sigh though not for the reason that Isaac might have assumed, she was grateful for the change in topic. “Of course he did, he loves Stiles...He might be having a meltdown while he drives home, but I think that’s to be expected.”

Issac chuckled a bit. “I bet you he binges some cheeseburgers while Stiles is away.”

Erica smirked. “Most likely...Not like Stiles can say anything about it.”

“Nope.”

The pair smiled to themselves. With any luck, they’d get through the eclipse and be able to ground Stiles in some way so he could see his father as soon as possible. It would do them both good to see that the other was safe.

 

********************************

 

Stiles woke in the middle of the night, he blinked a moment before he realized that he was in his bedroom at Derek’s. It was odd to think of the space as ‘his’ but Stiles figured that it was justified given how long he’d been cooped up in it. No one else had taken up residence at Derek’s loft, at least not for the length of time he had. 

The room was dark, not all surprising really cause a glance towards the window showed him that it was really late at night or really early in the morning. Sighing Stiles looked around him, a faint smile coming to his face when he saw Isaac curled up to him. The Beta seemed to prefer taking the night shift, though he was never far during the day either. Stiles couldn’t help but remember him calling Isaac a cuddle whore, the Beta really was. Shaking his head Stiles slowly moved himself to the side of the bed, it only took a little work to get away from Isaac. The wolf shifting in his sleep to get more comfortable when Stiles reclaimed his arm. 

Nodding to himself, Stiles forced himself to his feet and prayed he wouldn’t fall to the ground and wake Isaac. His legs gave little twinges, but he didn’t fall. Smirking the teen glanced towards Isaac to see the werewolf still asleep. Not daring to chance things, Stiles took the opportunity he had and slowly walked towards the door. He was inwardly pleased that his legs were holding him, they gave little pins and needle sensations, but they held firm. They did as he asked them to do and allowed him to get to the door. Sucking in a nervous breath Stiles tried the door handle, it turned easily under his fingers and when Stiles gently pulled it open there wasn’t a sound. Sighing in relief at being allowed to escape the room undeterred Stiles slowly exited the room. 

Stiles glanced down the hallway towards the bathroom and then down the opposite way towards the kitchen and loft space. Not dawdling Stiles started forward, making quiet sure steps closer towards the main living space. The teen paused as he entered the larger space, there was only one couch still in place in the large space and both Boyd and Erica were asleep on it. Entwined around each other. Stiles smirked at the adorable sight. Scott had somehow managed to cramp himself into a tiny recliner that really wasn’t meant for more than sitting. The Alpha was curled up though, Stiles felt idly bad for his best friends back come morning. 

Glancing over towards the front door, Stiles glanced back to the sleeping pack members. He could do it, he knew he could. Slowly and ever so carefully Stiles crept towards the front door. The deadbolt made a bit of noise, but a hasty glance behind him proved that neither Boyd nor Erica or Scott had woken to it. Sighing Stiles opened the door and slid through the barest of openings. He shut it behind him and let out a deep sigh. Free of the loft, for now, Stiles walked a ways before looking around. He wasn’t sure where to go, he just needed some space. He loved the pack and how they had cared for him, though he felt they shouldn’t have had too. However, the looming eclipse made him want to run, he knew he couldn’t actually outrun the eclipse and that trying would be downright stupid and get him or someone else hurt. 

Stiles settled for a midnight stroll in the woods. He smirked to himself, it was so cliche, but it might be just what he needed to get through this. He didn’t want to be a total sobbing mess in front of the pack in a few hours, he’d rather go for spazzed out of his mind. Chuckling Stiles walked and walked until he found a nice log that he figured would do just about as well as anything out there. It was the woods after all and he didn’t figure that a lawn chair or recliner were natural to this part of the woods. Settling himself down Stiles sighed and put his head in his hands, on the plus side his legs weren’t quivering anymore and the pins and needle sensation had faded. Yay supernatural healing. He gave a mirthless laugh at that. 

Stiles wasn’t sure how long he sat out there, just letting his mind spin around the thought that in a few short hours he wouldn’t be himself anymore. He’d be something else. Something that could hurt people, his dad, his friends...A monster. A hiccup left him without his say so, but Stiles didn’t feel so guilty in giving in to the need to show his emotions. He had a right to be flipped the fuck out about this...Every right. Yet no matter how much he wished to just let it all out, to just sob and cry and shout out how scared he was. His body wouldn’t let him. It tremored, shook and let out small noises from deep in his throat that sounded more childlike than the anything he’d ever remembered making before. No tears fell though. Grasping his hair he pulled on it, hoping that maybe the brief sensation of pain would help ground his spinning thoughts. It didn’t help though, it just made his scalp hurt. Stiles eventually loosened his grip but kept his fingers trailed in his hair as he held himself hunched over as he sat on the log.

“Scott will worry if your not there when he wakes.”

Stiles jumped and his head bolted up to stare in shock at Derek, the Alpha paused in his steps forward. He frowned as he stared at the startled teen before him. “Stiles?”

Nodding his head he stammered. “Yeah...Yeah your right, sorry I just-”

“Are you okay?”

Stiles snorted at that, but before he could give his usual smart ass remark the Alpha told him.

“Your eyes changed.”

Stiles froze, his eyes widening as his heart sped up. “What?!”

Derek nodded and proceeded forward, sure that the teen in front of him was in control if not more frantic than when he first arrived. Derek knelt down in front of the shaking boy.

“It's okay, I just wasn’t sure for a moment if you were all there.”

Stiles shook his head. “I’m me...I mean I think I’m me? I -”

Derek smirked and cut the rambling boy off. “It's okay, I get it. Its probably because the eclipse is so close. Can you see differently?”

Stiles frowned at the stupid question and shook his head. “No. Why would I, I mea-”

Derek tilted his head before looking off to the left, Stiles followed his gaze and before he could ask what was the matter the Alpha stated. “Pretty fox isn’t she?”

Stiles looked out towards where Derek was staring, he frowned before looking back at Derek when he turned to look at him. “That’s not a fox dumbass, that’s a raccoon.”

Derek smirked at him. “ I know.” 

Stiles snorted. “Then why’d you-”

Derek flashed his eyes at the teen, it garnered him the reaction he’d been looking for. Stiles' eyes widened and he glanced back to the raccoon, it was still there and that’s when it clicked. The nocturnal animal was way too far for a human to recognize it for what it was, let alone see the shape of the animal in the dark.

“Oh...Oh shit.”

“It's okay, your eyes make sense now don’t they? They’re adapting to night vision.” Derek calmed the boy.

Stiles looked back at him and nodded. “Yeah...Yeah okay.”

Sensing that his words hadn’t done all that he had hoped, Derek tried to distract Stiles before he could truly panic. “Why’d you come out here?” The Alpha questioned the boy carefully. 

Stiles shrugged his shoulders refusing to answer and instead asked his own question. “What-what do they look like?”

Derek paused, considering whether or not he wanted to answer Stiles given how terrified he obviously was. Ultimately he sighed and gave the teen a small smirk. “They’re green.”

“Green?” Stiles stated lamely.

The Alpha nodded. “Yes, they’re luminescent just like ours, but green.”

Stiles sighed, that hadn’t been what he was expecting but at least it wasn’t as obvious as the wolves own eyes. “Well, I suppose if I screw up and flash them they’ll be easy to write off as contacts.”

Derek snorted, shaking his head as he pointed out to the teen. “Not that shade of green Stiles...No human would have eyes like that.”

“Wonderful.” The boy's flat response made Derek smile.

“The coloring is nice though...Different.”

Stiles smirked a little forcefully, but Derek didn’t comment on it. Instead, the werewolf asked again.

“So why’d you sneak out here? No one would have stopped you.”

Stiles didn’t comment on the fact that he was pretty sure that Scott would have stopped him or at the very least accompanied him and that had been the last thing he wanted. “I didn’t want to wake them up...Or worry them.”

Derek could tell that what the boy was saying wasn’t all of it, he pressed. “Fair enough, but that doesn’t answer my real question.”

Stiles glared at him, but the wolves smirk didn’t fade. “I-I wanted to breathe...Just a moment of space of quiet and nothing else going on...Everythings going to change tonight Derek.”

“It already has, but I understand what you mean.”

Stiles nodded his head and cantered it back to stare up through the tree’s, he could see the moon clearly. “How often are there eclipses?” He wondered.

Derek was silent when he heard the teens question, Stiles was about to ask again when he glanced down suddenly as the log shifted. Derek was sitting beside him now on the log. Staring up at the moon. Smirking Stiles glanced back up and waited. Sure enough, Derek answered him.

“I’m not sure if...There are different kinds, we don’t know what kind effect you. If its all of them or just solar or just lunar.”

“Wow, the level of suckage keeps getting better and better.”

Derek snorted. “Chris said that Bastili normally revolves around the changing the seasons. It's only because an eclipse signals the same type of change that it affects you.” Stiles hummed at that. “It matter, once you get a handle on things it shouldn’t force you to need to change. It will just make you more prone to wanting too.”

Stiles nodded his head, never taking his eyes off of the moon. It was so bright, but his new eyesight could detect the subtle variances in the color and shapes that made it up. It was actually kinda cool, but very distracting. He found himself wanting to stay and stare at it, to try and find out all its secrets. Smirking Stiles asked. “How do new werewolves not get hit by cars?”

Derek jerked a bit and frowned at the boy staring up at the sky.

“What?”

Stiles looked back down to the Alpha. “How do new werewolves not get hit by cars?”

Derek shook his head, totally lost as to why the teen was asking him such a thing. “What are you talking about?”

Sighing Stiles explained. “If my vision is anything like yours...This is distracting as hell. Some poor sod has to have been walking along and suddenly gotten mind freaked by I don’t know a poster or something and then gotten hit by a car right? That happens.”

Derek smirked at Stiles ability to come up with increasingly unlikely scenarios. “Not that I’m aware of, but I suppose it could happen.”

Stiles nodded as he turned and looked around the woods they were in. “Don’t let me near any cars for a while.”

Derek snorted at the teen's odd request. “We won’t let you try to cross the street, Bastili form or not until we know you won't get hit.”

Stiles glanced back at him and smirked. “Thanks, so...How long until the cat’s out of the bag?”

Derek raised a brow before shrugging. “I’m not sure. Once the sun starts to set we’ll lock you down inside.”

Stiles snorted, rolling his eyes at the Alpha’s words. “I’ll be inside before then dude. I just wanted a break...I don’t plan on staying outside all day.”

Derek said nothing about that, so Stiles figured he didn’t begrudge him if he did choose to lounge outside before his first shift. Smirking the boy said. “Are you going to tie me down? Cause as kinky as that sounds it didn’t work with Scott.”

Derek glared at the teen, giving a tart. “No.”

Stiles snickered at the putout look he was receiving. “Well, that’s good...You aren’t hiding a spray bottle to spritz me with water when I’m bad are you?” Derek rolled his eyes at him, Stiles smirked. “What, I could see Scott doing that. He’s a real sick bastard sometimes.”

Derek shook his head. “No one is going to make a fool of you, we're just here to keep you safe.”

Stiles shook his head, the Alpha’s words were nice and all but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He leveled a steely look onto the Alpha, driving home the point of his words. “Keep yourselves safe, I mean it Derek. No one gets hurt.”

Derek gave him a look. “I can’t promise that Stiles. We might get roughed up if you become agitated...That’s fine. No one’s going to die tonight.”

Stiles shook his head, that wasn’t good enough. “There are five of you, get me to the ground and if you can’t, use your damn claws.”

Derek scowled, a rumbling growl forming deep in his chest at the notion of hurting the boy. “We’re not attacking you.”

“If I’m a threat, you damn well better.”

Derek shook his head as he tried to reason with the distraught teen. “You’re not a threat to the pack Stiles”

“You don’t know that! I want your word Derek, don’t let me hurt the pack. No one. Not Isaac, not Boyd, not Erica, not Scott, not you. No one. If someone’s going to get hurt it's me. You throw my ass, do whatever you have too. I am not waking up tomorrow and finding out I hurt someone.”

Derek glared at the teen, but Stiles glare was just as fierce.

“Say it.”

“No.”

Stiles pushed himself up off of the log and threw his hands up into the air as he let out an angry growl. A human one, but a growl none the less. Derek watched the boy stomp away, back towards his place. Sighing the Alpha got to his feet and followed after him. Stiles knew Derek was following him, but he refused to talk to the bastard. He was all intent on slamming the door in his face when they reached the loft, but before he could even get through the lines of vehicles he paused. 

Everyone was sleeping. If he stormed in there, he’d wake them. Spinning around Stiles glared at Derek and stormed back towards the forest, past the Alpha without saying a word. Derek watched as the boy walked angrily past him once more. He didn’t know what the boy was doing, but he wasn’t going to leave him alone. So he twisted and made to follow, he got five steps before Stiles spun around and pointed.

“Stay.” Derek snorted at that, Stiles glared. “I mean it, stay.”

“I’m not a dog.”

Normally Stiles would smile at something like that, but the boys glare never wavered. Derek folded his arms over his chest and held the glaring contest. In a battle of wills, he’d win. He was an Alpha. Stiles glared all the harder when he noticed what Derek was doing.

“Follow me and I will punch you.”

Derek raised a brow. “How is that a deterrent Stiles? I can heal.”

Stiles glowered at him, hating that the Alpha had a point. “Fine, I’ll put wolfsbane on my fist first.”

Derek took a small bit of pleasure in pointing out the flaw in the teen's plan. “You don’t have any.”

“I’ll get some.” The boy grit out. 

As amusing as it was to watch the teen flounder in his attempts to get rid of him, Derek informed the teen casually. “You’re not getting rid of me. So go and do what you want to do, I can remain silent if you don’t wish to talk.”

Stiles gave a bark of laughter. “Your kidding right, the hard part would be getting you to talk not the other way around Derek.”

The Alpha shrugged, he supposed that was true. “Do you want me to talk?”

“Fuck no, I want you to go away.”

The Alpha nodded. “And I already said that wasn’t happening so we’ve made no progress.”

“Screw your progress, go home.”

Derek’s face remained passive as he stared at the boy who was fuming in front of him. Stiles spun back around finally and stormed towards the woods once more. Derek kept a distance but followed after the boy. Stiles was gritting his teeth as he stormed into the woods once more. This was stupid, stupid Derek, stupid werewolf wouldn’t leave him alone in the stupid woods. He could hear the man’s footsteps behind him. 

He knew it was stupid and pointless and a supreme waste of energy, but he was feeling a little reckless at the moment. So Stiles swung around and punched the Alpha. Derek’s face jerked to the right, the wolf twisted his head back and glared at him. His eyes flashing red for a moment until he got a hold of himself. Stiles was shaking his hand and cursing.

“Feel better?”

“Fuck no, you broke my hand!”

Derek smirked as he watched the teen flail his hand about. “You broke your hand.”

Stiles' head jerked up to glare at him. The Alpha raised a brow asking the boy to argue his point. Stiles snorted at him before looking back to his hand that he was cradling.

“Nothing broke.”

“Do you have x-ray vision now?” The boy gritted out. 

“No, but I didn’t hear anything break.”

Stiles frowned as he looked back up. “You can hear that?”

Derek smirked. “Yes.”

“That’s...Really fucked up.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the boy, though he was silently glad that he seemed to be calming. Stiles flexed his hand a bit, wincing a few times before he looked back up at Derek.

“You just going to let me beat on you?”

Derek shrugged, he wasn’t against the idea if it helped the boy somehow. “I heal and you didn’t do any real damage to me.” The glare he got had the Alpha abridging his claim. “You haven't come into the strength that I’m sure will come with your shift. So right now you don’t have enough force behind you to cause me damage.”

Stiles snorted before dryly saying. “Nice save asshole.”

Derek smirked, he knew Stiles was smart and wouldn’t be fooled by his attempt to ‘correct’ his ‘mistake’. The boy glanced back down to his hand and sighed. “Not like it matters if it did break...It’d just heal right?”

Derek was silent a moment before he told the boy. “We don’t know how fast you will heal once the change is complete, but you will heal faster than a human.”

Stiles nodded his head, letting his hand fall back to his side he looked to Derek. The Alpha was just calmly standing there like he hadn’t just been cold-cocked by the teenager that had been shouting at him. Sighing Stiles muttered. “Sometimes I really hate you werewolves.”

Derek raised a brow at that, Stiles snorted and waved a hand at him. “Its nothing...Just I don’t know...Your confidence, it's really annoying.”

Derek chuckled at the boy's explanation. “You’ve never had a problem with confidence Stiles.”

The teen rolled his eyes. “There’s a distinct difference between courage and being ballsy for the sake of irritating people.”

Derek shook his head at the teen's weak attempt to downplay what he’d done in the past. “I don’t know many teenagers who would take on an Alpha after learning they exist.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “That’s not-”

“You’re braver than you think you are, but that’s different than confidence.” Derek placated the teen. “I think your confidence will change once you master your shift.”

Stiles had been prepared to argue with the wolf over his brave vs courage theory, but hearing that Derek believed that he’d become more confident once his shift was over struck something inside him. “Well, even if it doesn’t I still have lacrosse to look forward too right? Nothing like making Jackson feel like a pansy.”

Derek smirked. “Right.”

Sighing Stiles nodded his head and walked towards the Alpha once more. Derek held perfectly still, prepared for another attack if that was what would make Stiles feel better. He was surprised when Stiles grabbed his wrist and started walking. Derek looked down with a frown at where the boy held him, he wasn’t used to being touched. He looked back up to ask where they were going or what the boy was doing when he realized they were returning to the loft. Smirking Derek let the boy lead him through the woods. When they came out of the dense brush, Stiles let go of him and glanced over his shoulder.

“Come on Sourwolf...If I have to deal with the dread of turning into a supernatural devil cat, you might as well deal with helping me make pancakes at this god awful hour.”

Derek smirked. “Devil cat?”

“Shut up and march Hale.”

Chuckling Derek followed after Stiles. If cooperating with the boy's insane theory of pancakes being something to heal his hurts. He would do it, besides he didn’t really mind cooking for his pack. It was something he could do besides fighting for them.

 


	18. Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles develops a new trait of the Bastili, he's not too keen on it. The pack do their best to distract the teen from his impending transformation, there are mixed results.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just want to start off by saying, this was originally a VERY long chapter, over 15k...Needless to say, in order to save my own sanity, I broke it apart into separate chapters. A small oversight in my editing skills was had if I had chosen to take on that 15k XD. I hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter, Stiles' transformation is just a few chapters away now.

Stiles didn’t bother to be quiet when he entered the loft, he ignored the startled wolves as he strode past into the kitchen. They all blearily watched the boy as he began to pull out things. They glanced back over as they saw Derek head that direction too.

“Wha’s happening?”

Scott called out as he wiped at his eyes. Derek snorted before calling out to the other Alpha.

“Pancakes.”

Erica groaned and turned back over, Boyd smiled down at her before joining her in a horizontal position once more. Scott saw the two Beta’s attempting to go back to sleep so he rose and headed over towards the kitchen. 

Leaning against the countertop he asked. “Do you know what time it is?”

Stiles snorted as he started putting ingredients into a bowl. Frowning Scott was about to ask what was wrong when Stiles' head jerked up and he said. “I want fuckin pancakes okay. Deal with it!”

Scott jerked back a bit, but not because his friend had shouted. No that wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, the eyes, however, were something new. Scott glanced over to Derek when Stiles went back to work on the breakfast he was apparently intent on making at three in the morning. 

Derek smirked at him. “We found a fox in the woods.”

Frowning at the man’s weird statement his head jerked back to Stiles when he snorted. “It was a raccoon dumbass.”

Even more perplexed Scott was relieved when Derek said. “He can see in the dark now.”

Sighing Scott nodded. “Okay...Yeah sure...Noticed the eyes, hard not to really an-”

The Alpha stopped when Stiles glared at him. He clamped his mouth shut with an audible click and when Stiles scowled for a minute before nodding and returning to his work Scott looked to Derek. 

The Alpha chuckled a bit at the Alpha’s dilemma, it was apparent that Stiles didn’t want his eyes mentioned for one reason or another and Scott had found himself at a crossroads with his friend. Shaking his head and taking a small amount of pity onto his fellow Alpha, Derek informed the teen what they were doing, letting the inflection of his voice say more than his actual words. “He wants pancakes, so we're making pancakes.”

Scott just nodded to that, unsure what that had to do with the boy's eyes changing.

“What's going on?”

Scott and Derek turned to see Isaac sleepily rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes widened when he saw Stiles walking around the kitchen unaided. “Hey, you can walk!”

Stiles spun around and glared at the teen as he was startled and accidentally spilled some batter onto the countertop. 

Issac’s eyes widened, his previous excitement to seeing Stiles walking around unaided despite the early hour was put on hold when he saw the teens eyes. “And you-”

“If someone mentions my eyes one more time i-”

“Okay, so blueberry or chocolate chip?” Scott cut off his irritated friend with a smile, hoping to detract from the tense atmosphere that was forming.

Stiles snorted. “Who cares.”  He muttered sourly as he continued beating the batter in the bowl. 

Issac glanced to Derek his eyes showing his concern. The Alpha shook his head leaving the Beta to sigh at the lack of answers. With nothing better to do he walked over to lean against the counter, a moment later he told Stiles in a hesitant tone.

“Chocolate chip are better.”

Stiles paused and for a moment Isaac thought he was going to get yelled at again, but the now green-eyed teen smiled. “Okay, I can do that.”

Relieved to hear some happiness in his friend's voice Isaac asked. “Can I help?”

Stiles shrugged. “Not much to do really...Go get the chocolate chips if you want something to do I guess.”

Issac nodded and was quickly around the counter to ‘help’ as much as Stiles would allow him too. Derek smiled as he watched Isaac manage to temper Stiles a bit. If the boy didn’t like his new features being mentioned, they’d keep it to themselves. At least for the time being. Derek knew that depending on how tonight went the boy would either love the new abilities or fear them. He prayed it was love as he’d seen first hand what happened to werewolves who feared themselves for too long. He didn’t want anything like that happening to Stiles.  Soon enough the smell of cooking pancakes filled the loft and even though Erica was still upset by the early wake-up call, the promise of food seemed to brighten her at least a little. She also took it upon herself to brew some coffee, Boyd yawned as he stepped further into the kitchen after being deserted by his girlfriend in the wake of the coffee maker.

“We got bacon?”

Stiles paused before tilting his head. “Uh...Do we?” He looked towards Derek. The Alpha nodded and pointed towards the fridge, Stiles smirked and glanced back to Boyd. “You want it, you cook it...I always hated making bacon.”

“But you love to eat it.”

Stiles glanced over his shoulder towards Scott, smirking. “Yeah.”

Erica turned around from the coffee maker now that she had her first cup of coffee in hand. She had just swallowed the first sip of blessed warmth when she caught sight of Stiles' eyes. Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything she found her mouth covered. She turned a glare solidly onto Isaac as the teen was covering her mouth, but the boy shook his head. Catching on she nodded and the boy released her, Isaac nudged her and jerked his head towards Boyd who was still busy with the bacon packaging. Erica nodded and walked over to her boyfriend, posed to intercept him before he might do something to upset Stiles as Isaac had implied. Issac went back over to Stiles side and tried to filch a pancake, receiving a slap on the hand from an amused Stiles.

“Knock it off, they’re not done.”

“Done enough.”

Stiles snorted at him, distracted by the boy's interruption to not notice Boyd glancing over to him or Erica’s subtle reminder not to say anything. 

Issac smiled at Stiles. “You know you want to try one.”

Stiles smiled at the blonde’s teasing. “Well of course I do, but unlike some people, I’ll wait until their done.”

Issac sighed and walked off now that he was sure the Beta’s knew not to bring up Stiles new change. He wasn’t sure why they weren’t allowed to talk about it, but Isaac could sense the tension so he left it alone. While Boyd was fixing the bacon to go along with the pancakes, Isaac handed Scott some plates and silverware. They’d have to use their laps as a table now that nearly everything was out of the loft space, but they were fine with that.  Once the food was done and spread out for people to collect what they wanted, they plated up and moved over to the last remaining pieces of furniture in the room. 

Stiles was happily chewing on a pancake, he swallowed before bringing up. “Unless you hate this couch and that chair you might want to move them too.”

Derek chose to ignore the small amount of irritation lacing Stiles’ voice, no doubt the teen was feeling the pressure of having everything change so suddenly. “I planned on it Stiles, we just left them so people would have a place to crash.”

Stiles nodded his head before remarking. “Well you guys could have always puppy piled in the room I was in, you did it often enough when I was paralyzed.”

Erica and Boyd smiled at him, but it was Scott who said. “Nah, we were fine dude. Besides we didn’t want  you getting the wrong impression of us.”

Stiles snorted at him as he chewed up another piece of pancake. “Yeah wouldn’t want that.” He muttered mirthfully. 

The others smirked at him as they continued to eat their breakfast. Though radically early, the group settled into some semblance of their normal routine. Boyd headed to shower while Erica and Isaac cleaned up the dishes. Scott and Derek began moving the last little bits of furniture, Stiles tried to help, but they wouldn’t let him as he wasn’t really any stronger than before and werewolf strength easily trumped what he could do. So Stiles leaned against a pillar and watched it all, any other time he would have been cracking jokes and directing the ‘peasants’. Not today, not with the ever-looming threat of what was to come. Sighing Stiles twisted to look back at Isaac and Erica to see if they might need help. They didn’t. He needed something to do, he was going to go crazy with this waiting thing and it was only a little before five in the morning. 

Stiles jumped when Boyd appeared suddenly and called out. “Shower’s free.”

Erica smiled and headed off down the hallway, presumedly to take a shower. Stiles watched her go before looking back around the room. He frowned when his eyes caught something. Pressing off of the pillar he walked across the loft space and stood before the window. Stiles could see out it of course, but what had caught his attention all the way across the expanse of the room itself were tiny fractures in the glass. The lights inside the loft having reflected off of the little slivers of glass and shined brightly to his perspective eyes. Stiles blinked a moment when he finally realized that he was attracted to light. Snorting and not in amusement, he turned and walked away. The teen ignored the pack and headed back to ‘his’ room, Stiles slammed the door behind him and fell face first on the bed. He kept his eyes shut firmly, not wanting to ‘see’ anything else.

 

*************************

 

The pack paused when they saw Stiles storm off and winced when the door slammed.

“Should we?”

Derek shook his head. “Give him a bit of space, he’s feeling overwhelmed about tonight.”

Issac nodded, treading carefully as he asked. “Like his eyes?”

“Yes, he was amused for a while...But it quickly lost its appeal. He’s scared of hurting anyone...He tried to make me promise to hurt him instead of letting him hurt us.”

The pack growled at that, Scott's eyes flaring as he took in the possible threat to his friend. Derek flashed his own eyes at the Alpha before stating in a calm but stern tone. “I didn’t agree to do it Scott. I told him nothing was going to happen to anyone. He wasn’t happy about that, but he knows where I stand on it.”

The boy's eyes faded back to normal and he gave a stiff nod. “And then he didn’t want them mentioned?”

Derek shrugged. “I think it freaks him out how much has changed, how much he’s going to change. It's just another sign that he can't stop this.”

Erica walked into the room about then and huffed. “He nearly cracked the door I swear...What’s up with him?”

They shook their heads and after Scott had filled her in did she glance back down the hallway. “Well...Its only a few more hours right? Then we’ll know.”

“We have like twelve hours Erica, the eclipse doesn’t even happen until seven.” Issac supplied. 

She turned and glared at her fellow Beta. “I know that, but there’s nothing more we can really do.”

“Keep him distracted.” Scott supplied. 

The others nodded to him.

“But how?”

The silence was deafening, no one knew what to do for the boy. They didn’t figure a movie would work. They were all tired of the passive activity so Stiles had to be up the wall about being done. 

“We could go outside.”

“That’s what he did this morning with Derek.”

The Beta’s looked to the Alpha.

“You went outside with him?”

Derek shook his head. “He snuck out, I followed.”

“How’d he like that?”

The man shrugged his shoulders. “He punched me.”

Scott’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding? Like he really punched you?”

Derek nodded. “Yes, it didn’t do much to me Scott, he complained about werewolves in general...He’s just working through some things. Issac’s idea isn’t a bad one though. He at least seemed...Calmer out there.”

“Inner animal?” Scott asked.

Derek shook his head. “This isn’t normal terrain for a Bastili, but I suppose outside is outside.”

The others nodded.

“So who goes and gets him then?”

Silence.

 

****************************

 

Stiles glared through his eyelids when he heard the door open. “Go away.”

There was no noise so for one brief little moment Stiles believed that whoever had come to check on him had done as he asked. Then the moment was shattered and he was forcefully hoisted from the bed and thrown over a shoulder. Stiles yelped and jerked a bit as he scrambled to find purchase on whoever was carrying him like a knapsack. He frowned when he realized it wasn’t Scott or Derek as he’d immediately assumed it would be. Sighing he grit out. “Boyd?”

“Hmm?”

Stiles sighed when the other teen was so cavalier about carrying him around. “Put me down.”

“Nope.”

Glaring at the back of the teen carrying him. Stiles grit out. “I mean it Boyd, put me down.”

The teen didn’t reply to him at all, just continued to walk. Stiles smacked the middle of the teen’s back and winced when his hand stung.

“Don’t do that.” Came the bland response from the stoic boy.

Eyes widening at the helpful tip Stiles stammered. “Seriously? Don’t do that? Fuck you, put me down.”

Stiles tried to wiggle enough to maybe fall off the boy's shoulder, but Boyd just braced him by putting a hand on his back. Securing him to the teen’s shoulder. Glaring once more Stiles kicked up more of a fuss, hoping that he might be able to knee or kick something sensitive. He got nowhere fast and with the blood rushing to his head he had to stop, panting against Boyd’s back the teen muttered sourly.

“I hate you.”

“Hmm...That was a lie.” The teen seemed bored even as he said as much.

Glaring all the harder for the lack of a response, Stiles waited to see what the boy intended to do with him. It was the sudden realization that they weren’t in the loft anymore that had him looking around. His face pinched up though as his brain tried to sort out the new things he could see all while upside down. Stiles had to shut his eyes, in the end, to save himself from vomiting on Boyd. He smirked a bit at the thought of doing just that, but even he wasn’t that cruel. It took a few minutes before they stopped, Stiles waited rather impatiently to see if he’d be allowed back upright or not. He felt when Boyd knelt down and he was systematically lowered to the ground and once more sitting up, Stiles braced himself with one hand while the other cradled his head.

“You okay?” He heard Scott ask. 

Well at least it wasn’t Boyd going bonkers, more than one of them were in on it...Whatever it was.

“I’m dizzy jackass.”

Scott smirked, though Stiles couldn’t see it with his eyes closed. He glanced at Boyd and nodded. The teen gave a nod of his own before walking over towards Isaac, Erica, and Derek to wait. Stiles finally managed to open his eyes and the first thing he did was glare at Scott. The werewolf didn’t seem bothered by it though, the bastard was smiling.

“I hate all of you right now.”

Scott shrugged, disregarding the lie in his best friend statement. Instead, choosing to say. “That’s fine...But do you want to do something about that?”

“I already almost broke my hand on Derek’s face, so piss off.”

“You did that to yourself.” Came the simple retort from the Alpha.

Stiles glanced over towards where the voice came from. “Fuck you, it was your stupid face.”

Derek smirked back at him, not disturbed by the boy's outburst at all.  Shaking his head, Scott held out a hand.

“Come on, we have a surprise.”

Stiles glared at him before shoving himself up off the ground, refusing to take the offered hand. Scott sighed, but let Stiles get to his feet. 

Huffing Stiles gave a brisk nod. “Fine, what is it that you had to use Boyd to carry me out here?”

He glanced around a bit before he frowned. “Where is here? How deep in the woods are we?”

Scott smirked, his friend's curiosity returning was a good start. “Pretty far in, no one’s going to notice us that’s for damn sure. Plus were on Derek’s property so were good.”

As if to emphasize that point, the boy shifted into his Beta form. Stiles glared at him for all of a minute before he sighed and closed his eyes once more.

“Stiles?” The boy asked concerned.

“Change back.”

“What why?”

“Because it's too damned distracting, that’s why.”

Scott glanced back to the others, Derek shrugged his shoulders. Sighing Scott did as asked and after regaining his human features said. “Okay, all human.”

Stiles opened his eyes, the glare still present. “What do you want?”

Scott smirked wanely at him. “For you to have some fun.”

Stiles snorted at that and was about to turn and try and find his way back to the loft when Scott suddenly caught a soccer ball. Stiles arched a brow at him. 

“We don’t have our lacrosse gear, and Erica wouldn’t play that anyways...So this will do.”

“You want me to play soccer with a pack of wolves?” Stiles deadpanned.

Scott smirked. “Yep.”

Stiles rolled his eyes before looking over to Derek. “They rope you into this? Did they threaten the Camaro?”

Derek shook his head. “No, and I would end them if they did.”

Stiles chuckled a bit at that, they all knew how much Derek liked the car. 

“Come on, play with us” Isaac cried out. 

Stiles sighed at the boy, sometimes the blonde really was an overgrown puppy. “I can't keep up with you guys and you know that.”

Issac ignored the truth in that statement. “So, maybe it will help if you tire yourself out.”

Shaking his head Stiles looked back at Scott and frowned, he was giving him the look. The one he always told the boy made him look like a kicked puppy. “I hate you and this is stupid.” Stiles gritted out as he stole the ball and stormed over towards the others. Scott laughed as he followed after Stiles, glaring at the pack Stiles tossed the ball on the ground and stopped its momentum with his foot.

“You all suck and I hate you. Just want that clear, now where are the goals.”

They smirked at him, not at all deterred by his words. Erica pointed and Stiles looked to see a makeshift goal had been made with some logs. Snorting he said.

“Hope you didn’t displace any wildlife for this game.”

Erica smirked. “They’ll relocate.” She had no remorse for any of the ‘wildlife’ that might have had their homes destroyed for their game and it was because of this that Stiles laughed.

“Alright, who’s on what team?”

The wolves smirked at him, Stiles blinked a moment before he said. “Fuck no, not happening. There is no way I can take you all on and you know you traitorous bastards.”

They laughed before Scott came over and tossed an arm around his shoulders.

“We’re just messing with you, me and Isaac are with you.”

The boy nodded and walked over, sighing Stiles muttered sourly. “Really hate you all.”

They ignored the boy's comment. Erica was lightly toeing the ball, she glanced up and smiled.

“I used to play...Before my epilepsy got really bad.”

Stiles groaned. “We're fucked. Totally fucked...Look at her, she knows shit man.”

Scott laughed and patted his back. “Don’t worry so much. Derek and Boyd are more cumbersome, were faster.”

Issac nodded his head, Stiles glance between the two of them. “You poor delusional fools.”

Shaking his head he pulled away from Scott and asked. “Who controls the ball first?”

Erica kicked it forward, letting Stiles stop it. “I’ll let you go first.” She winked. 

Stiles glared at the girl's sass, he knew she wasn’t doing that out of the kindness of her own heart so much in the belief that they would need all the advantage she’d give them.

“Gee thanks.” Glancing over to his ‘teammates’ he told them. “You two loser’s better protect me.”

They laughed and nodded, looking back at Derek and Boyd Stiles made the remark. “Remember...Still breakable.” He waved to his body and the pair smirked.

sighing Stiles made as if to turn and say something to his teammates again when he suddenly lurched forward and kicked the ball behind him to Isaac. The boy laughed and was off, Stiles grinned up at the shocked faces of the other team.

“Bring it, warrior princess.”

Erica laughed and lunged, Stiles turned and ran after his teammates to hopefully help them score before the other wolves caught up. Stiles wasn’t exactly sure how he’d gotten roped into playing soccer in the middle of the woods before the sun was barely up, but he had to admit it wasn’t all bad.

 

***********************

 

He couldn’t breathe Stiles was sure his lungs were melting, liquifying inside his very chest. It burned with every breath he took and as painful as it was, he couldn’t slow his breathing down to try and temper the pain. All his body wanted right now was air, precious air. It didn’t care how he got it, it just wanted it.

“I think we broke him.”

Came the speculative assumption from Erica, Stiles panted some more before with a shaking hand flipped her off. 

She laughed at his weak rebuttal. “Nope still alive.”

“F-Fuck you.” Stiles panted, his chest heaving as he brought in great lungfuls of air. 

The pack was sitting around him, the bastards had already controlled their own breathing. Stiles wasn’t so lucky, his ‘human’ body was heaving from all the exertion. He had his eyes closed, had them that way since he collapsed when they called the game. The input from them was distracting and sometimes it was just too much. He found taking short breaks to close them, to let his brain settle. Stiles hoped that he’d get used to the change because if he was always this sensitive school was going to suck. 

“Maybe we should poke him with a stick?” Issac laughed out.

“He’s not moving much.”

Stiles cracked his eyes open and turned to glare at him, still panting he managed to wheeze out. “So...Much...Hate...”

Issac grinned at him. “I know you love me, thanks man.”

The pack chuckled as Stiles groaned and closed his eyes once more. Scott was smiling as he watched Stiles pant and wheeze.

Looking over to Derek he caught the Alpha’s eyes. “So what now?”

Derek shook his head, it hadn’t been his idea to come out here in the first place. He didn’t have any clue as to what to do now, but based off of how Stiles was doing the best thing would be to take a break. “Let him learn to breathe again.”

The pack snickered even as Stiles raised his hand to flip Derek off, his hand falling back down not a moment later as he concentrated on bringing fresh air into his abused body.

“Well, we could go on a hike.” Erica sent a levacious look towards Stiles, the teen groaned in response not even finding the energy to flip the girl off.

Scott smirked at the Beta, shaking his head at his best friends weak retort. “I don’t think he’s quite up for that.”

“What are we going to do for lunch?”

“That’s hours away.” Erica pointed out just in case the rest of them didn’t realize just how early it really was.

“Well, yeah, but we can still plan ahead.” Isaac shrugged. “What if we need to get something from in town? We can’t just be coming and going.”

Stiles knew that the last comment was really directed at him, but he didn’t reply to it. He didn’t care what he ate today, not really. The pancakes had just been something he could do to keep busy. To get some of the growing anger in him out. He felt pretty good all things considered now. The pack had been right about burning off excess energy. He was exhausted but in a good way. Everything hurt, his muscles were on fire, just like his lungs actually. His side’s hurt from all the running and his toes felt cramped from all the kicking of the ball. He wouldn’t have changed any of it for a second though. Opening his eyes he squinted a moment until he got used to the influx of information his eyes were sending him.

“I don’t think I can move.” His breathing wasn’t quite death level anymore, so it only came as mildly alarming pants between words, the pack was chuckling at him. “No...Seriously...I’m done...You killed me...Too much running...Heart exploded...Lungs....Oh...Hate the lungs...”

Shaking his head Scott told his friend. “ You’re fine Stiles, just tired.”

“Lies...So many lies.” He mumbled. 

Scott and the others laughed at him.

“Do you need me to carry you back?” Scott was only halfway joking, he would if Stiles needed him too. Stiles hummed at that before his head fell to the side to look at him.

“Mush.”

The pack laughed at the dog sledding term, shaking his head Scott told his friend. “I can leave your ass here.”

Stiles gave a jerky nod against the ground. “I’m cool with that...So long as it doesn’t involve moving.”

Sighing Scott knelt over his friend and asked. “Are you even going to sit up.”

“No...That’s moving, clean your ears man.”

Rolling his eyes, Scott reached down and hoisted Stiles up. The boy slumped against him forcing Scott to brace Stiles lest his friend topple the both of them over. Scott grunted only to roll his eyes when Stiles muttered against him.

“God...So tired.”

Chuckling Scott wasn’t surprised when Stiles took longer to get his feet back under him, despite managing it the tired boy's legs were quaking. Taking pity on his friend, Scott questioned. “Piggyback or shoulder?”

“Duck if I care...My eyes will be closed.”

Scott smiled sadly at that, they’d all noticed the boy reacting to movement, light...Things that would catch his new eyesight and force the boy to look towards it. Just as Stiles had been forced mid-game to close his eyes as it brought an influx of information that his brain didn’t seem equipped to handle just yet.

“Alright. Come on.” Scott lifted Stiles over his shoulder and braced the boys back with a hand.

“Let's head back.”

Stiles was quiet for a few steps before he said. “I liked Boyd shoulder better.”

The pack laughed, though both Boyd and Scott had confused looks on their faces.

“What? Why?”

“He’s softer...Less bony.”

Boyd smirked as Scott snorted. “That’s muscle Stiles.”

“Still soft...Your shoulders in my ribcage.”

Snorting Scott replied. “Tough.”

The walk back was filled with only the barest of conversation. Occasionally Stiles would make a comment, normally something out of the blue that would make them laugh at the absurdity of it. It was shortly after an expanse of silence that Stiles said in a slightly befuddled and yet intrigued tone. “A laser pointer would actually work on me...And I don’t know whether to be appalled or amused by that fact.”

“Well I promised not to use one on you, so no worries.”

“Yeah...But that’s my point.” Stiles stated factually to Scott. “ It works. Maybe you should use one...If I’m chasing a stupid light beam I won't be chasing you right?”

The pack sobered up at that idea, Scott frowned as he walked. “We don’t need you chasing a light beam Stiles, your not going to hurt anyone.”

Stiles snorted at that, the disbelief clear to them all. Gritting his teeth Scott had to reel himself back as he wanted nothing more than to shake his stubborn friend and tell him that it was all going to be okay. He knew better though, Stiles needed to know for sure that things would be okay, he needed proof. They came out of the woods and walked towards the loft's door. Once they were inside, Scott righted Stiles and held him while he gained his balance. Once Stiles could open his eyes did the boy tell them.

“I’m going to go shower because although I don’t have your noses, I pity you right now.”

They laughed as the boy walked off. Shaking his head at his friends back, Scott looked over at the rest of the pack.

“So what now?”

 

********* 

 

By the time lunch rolled around the nerves were nearly visible in the air around the pack. Stiles had taken up pacing a little by the window. He’d pause every now and then as if his eyes had caught something fascinating before he was off again. He’d shrugged them off when they tried to get him to go lay down or watch a movie, nothing seemed to work to still his frantic steps back and forth in front of the large windows. So the pack had to stand there and watch him, they didn’t have too. Stiles had already told them to go and do something, but they refused to leave him. Instead, they leaned against each other and different parts of the loft in a semi-circle formation around his pacing area. Ready to offer comfort if he’d let them, but staying back until he asked for one of them. It was when he was halfway through another pace that he paused once more. The pack watched him to see what he would do, but Stiles frowned and turned to look at them all.

“What?” Scott asked, a glimmer of hope in his voice that maybe Stiles had worked through whatever he needed too. 

Stiles opened his mouth and closed it a few times as if he couldn’t find the words he was looking for. Finally, he shook his head and kept pacing. Scott sighed the exhalations of the others not far behind his own. They wanted the boy to speak up but let Stiles do what he needed. The boy only made another three trips back and forth before he paused again and with a frustrated sound turned and barked out.

“Do you have any idea what the hell I’m going to look like? Cause I can't remember anyone actually describing what I’m turning into besides a fuckin cat.”

The pack was standing in stunned silence to the boy's tirade before Derek pushed off of the wall he’d been leaning against. He nodded to Stiles and headed up the stairs to his bedroom. Stiles watched him go with a frown on his face, but before he could question what the Alpha was doing the man was coming back downstairs. He walked over an old book in his hands and smirked. He held it over to him, his finger holding a page open. Stiles took it and looked down.

“It's an old drawing though and we don’t know if you’ll look exactly like that or how accurate a depiction is”

Stiles nodded his head as he listened to Derek talk to him.

“Oh...”

Looking back up to the Alpha Stiles bit his lip before handing the book back. Derek took the offered item and watched the boy carefully, he half expected Stiles to return to his pacing now that he had the answer to his question. He didn’t though, Stiles stood there silently staring back at him. 

Finally, the boy asked.“How big am I?”

Derek shook his head. “Doesn’t say.”

Nodding Stiles sighed and turned around to stare out the window once more. Derek walked towards the kitchen, placing the book aside before moving back towards his preferred wall space to wait. So far Stiles wasn’t pacing again, but he wasn’t talking to them either. 

Sensing an opportunity to distract the tense boy now that he apparently had whatever he’d been searching for, Erica asked. “Are you hungry?”

Stiles shook his head as he continued to stare out the window. Erica frowned at the back of the boy's figure. He should be. It had been hours since their very early breakfast and they’d run around outside for hours. It was probably nerves though, she was sure if they could get him to try something Stiles would realize just how hungry he actually was. So ignoring the boy's claims to being fine, she twisted about in Boyd’s arms and said. “Help me in the kitchen.”

Boyd nodded and the pair walked over to the space to start preparing whatever the girl had in mind. Stiles glanced their way before huffing and turning to stare once more out the window. They could do whatever they wanted to do, it didn’t mean he was going to take part in it. Stiles stared out the huge window, taking in the different facets of each item his eyes flitted too. It was distracting to be looking at one thing so intensely one moment and then be off looking at another thing before his mind had even calmed from the previous fascination. He smirked when he realized that this wasn’t so much different than his add. Though he doubted there was a supernatural equivalent to adderal. Closing his eyes to tune out all the stimulus, he let his head come forward to press against the glass. It was cold but nice. Something to focus on instead of the churning thoughts rattling his brain.

“Are you okay?”

Stiles heard Isaac’s timid question and for a moment he wanted to yell at his friend, but he held back. It wasn’t Isaac’s fault that he felt like shit, that all this had happened and it wasn’t fair to yell at him for being concerned. He still hated the question though, it was a really stupid question. They all knew he wasn’t okay, he was far from it in fact. So Stiles chose to remain silent, he knew the boy wouldn’t take it to heart, none of them had so far. 

Sighing Stiles let himself relax as much as he could while leaning against a window pane. A part of him wanted to just collapse and wallow in his grief, in his suffering. Another part refused to let that happen, his stubbornness most likely the only reason why he was still standing...Well leaning anyways. He could idly hear Erica and Boyd moving about, making something for the rest of them for lunch. He really wasn’t all that hungry, his stomach felt like a solid mass, a giant boulder weighing heavily in his body and he couldn’t fathom trying to eat with it like that.

Stiles felt that urge again to run, to just get out...He knew he couldn’t listen to it though. There was nowhere he could go, nowhere that would be far enough to escape this, it’d just follow him. It was him. Still, his legs itched with the need to move, it was the real reason he had started pacing in the first place. Stiles had hoped it would help, something told him it would help. It had, his little respite though had caused the feeling to return so with a sigh he pushed himself off of the glass and opened his eyes once more. 

Stiles winced as all the information his eyes flooded his brain assaulted him. Once it had slowed to a more manageable level did he turn and start walking back and forth again. The itching in his legs, the urge to run was at least tempered by the movement, though it never went away.  The pack watched as Stiles started pacing once more, they had hoped that he might have been calming down when he slumped against the window. It appeared they were wrong.

Issac glanced back to Scott, his eyes pleading with the Alpha to do something, Scott looked just as torn as he was though. It was plain to see that he wanted to beg Stiles to hold still, to just relax and take it easy. Something was stopping him from voicing his request though so Isaac turned back around and stared as Stiles walked back and forth before the window. Derek watched the repetitive movements of the boy, he wasn’t fooled by it. He’d seen this before, a caged animal pacing its cage, waiting to get out. In essence that was what they were seeing. The Bastili in Stiles was growing stronger the closer they got to the eclipse and as it grew stronger so did its anxiety for being trapped. Wolves did the same thing when they were anxious, though he figured that the only reason the others didn’t realize what he did was because they hadn’t reacted this way to their own shift. Derek had seen it happen though with some of his cousins, back before the fire happened. The wolves in them pacing in anxiety to get out from their human forms, to be able to run. He tilted his head at that. They’d run the boy ragged a few hours ago, but if the pacing was helping...

“Stiles?”

The boy twisted and looked at him for a bare moment before he resumed his pacing. 

Smirking Derek called out. “Do you want to run?”

The pack looked at him like they were scared of what he was offering the boy, Stiles couldn’t run from this. The boy paced a few more times before he gave a jerky nod.

“Derek...He can't run from this.”

Derek snorted at Scott when the teen assumed what he was actually saying. “Of course he can’t, but he can run.” The subtle difference was apparently too much for any of the others to catch onto, sighing Derek explained. “He’s anxious to get out...The Bastili wants out. It cant until the eclipse starts so it's making him feel like he needs to do something. Pacing for instance.”

Derek waved towards Stiles. “However, if he were to go outside and run for a bit it might do more for him than this repetitive walk in such a confined space.”

Stiles kept glancing his way as he paced back and forth, the boy finally spoke up. “Will it help?”

Derek shrugged, he had no real way of knowing whether or not it would help the teen. In the past, it had helped his relatives, not all, but some. “It   hurt, it’s just like how you exerted yourself this morning with soccer.”

Stiles nodded his head and made for the door, Derek watched him go but stopped Scott. The Alpha glared at him, but Derek stared back at him impassively while calling out. “Issac go with him.”

When Scott moved to intercept, Derek grabbed his arm, the Alpha nodded to Isaac when the Beta froze, Isaac glanced between them a moment before jogging towards the door.

The Beta was through the door and moving to follow Stiles all while Derek held tight to Scott’s arm. Once the pair were gone did Derek tell the fuming Alpha.

“He needs to vent right now. If you went with him, he might feel pressured by you.”

Scott shook his head, pulling his arm free. “I wouldn’t pressure him to do anything Derek.”

Sighing Derek said. “You’re an Alpha, we don’t know how the Bastili will react to us. Issac’s not much of a threat, he’s a Beta and alone. The Bastili inside of Stiles will most likely just ignore him and let Stiles exercise some of his excess energy and anxiety.”

Scott frowned at the door, wanting to go after his friend. He saw the logic behind what Derek was saying, but it still felt wrong to leave Stiles.

“They’ll be fine. If something happens Isaac will howl.”

Sighing Scott nodded his head. “Alright...I hope this helps though...He was burning a hole in your floor man.”

Derek gave a nod. “It should help.”

 

*******************************

 

Stiles was running as fast as he could. He was panting as he did so, but that didn’t seem to matter at the moment. All he could do was keep running, just keep running. He let the air flow into his aching lungs just as fast as his feet could carry him, that horrible feeling that had been buzzing under his skin subsiding for as long as he moved. He just had to keep moving.

Issac was keeping pace with him easily and although a part of him was annoyed that the werewolf wasn’t bothered by their pace, another was bothered simply because he was there. Stiles couldn’t for the life of him figure out why though. Issac was his friend, they were pack. It wasn’t like the boy was asking him annoying questions anymore, well, not annoying per se but obtrusive. That wasn’t what was happening now though, Isaac was silent as they jogged together through the woods. Still, a nagging sensation said Stiles should lose him, should find some way to get away from him. Drive him off. Stiles came to a shuddering stop, panting for breath he looked up as Isaac who had stopped ahead of him and turned to give him a smile upon registering that he wasn’t following the wolf. Stiles frowned the nagging thoughts wouldn’t stop, the clawing itchy wrongness of it all getting to him. It was different than before, this wasn’t the same sensation as when he’d been needing to run...This was all together. Wrong. 

Standing back up Stiles asked. “Can you smell me?”

Issac snorted at the question.

Stiles shook his head, frowning a moment when he realized how that sounded. “No..Not me...Uh, the cat...The cat.”

Tilting his head to the side Isaac sniffed the air. Stiles froze, the nagging sensation telling him to run, to hide. He fought against it, closing his eyes and focusing with all his might to just stop it. Everything needed to just stop, just for a moment.

“Stiles?”

Shaking his head the boy stammered. “F-fine...I-I’m fine.”

Stiles didn’t need to open his eyes to tell him that the werewolf didn’t believe him. He didn’t believe him. “Can you? Can you smell it?”

“I only smell you Stiles...I don’t know what you're wanting me to find.” The subtle whine in the Beta’s voice clearly depicted how unsettled the blonde was. Wanting, eager to help but not knowing how. 

Groaning Stiles collapsed to his knees, a moment later he heard Isaac rushing forward after the boy called his name in a rising tone of voice signaling his concern. Stiles held out a hand, willing the boy to stop, to not touch him. He knew Isaac was knelt down before him, but thankfully he wasn’t touching him. Stiles wasn’t sure he could handle one more sensation being thrown at him at the moment.

“I-I N-N-Need a minute.”

“Okay. Take as long as you need.”

Stiles gave a jerky nod and sat back on his heels, wrapping his arms around him as he shuddered.

“Are you cold?”

Stiles shook his head, gritting his teeth as he had to use all his strength to keep from getting up and running. He couldn’t do that, Isaac would follow and somehow, someway Stiles knew that nothing good would come of that. “No...No. Just...Quiet please.”

Issac didn’t say another word and Stiles was ever so grateful for it, it was taking all he had to not just bolt into the woods. The blondes silence helped in some small way, minimizing the shudders that had begun to rock through his body. The urge, overwhelming urge to run. Stiles took shuddering breaths as he tried to calm the rising panic, the nagging sensation telling him to run, to flee and hide. What was worse than just that was that the longer he ignored it the more it egged him on, adding thoughts of attacking Isaac to prevent him from following. To stop the wolf from attacking them, Stiles shook his head. No, that wasn’t right, Isaac wouldn’t hurt him and he was him? It was just him, but his mind...It kept breaking away from that. Us. We. It all kept wrapping around in horrible invisible tendrils in his brain, so many thoughts, so many demands. Swallowing convulsively Stiles was able to get a bare whisper of. “Call Scott.”

“What? Why? Are you okay?”

Stiles shook his head as the teen questioned him, he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t explain, he just needed it to stop. “Call the Alphas...Now Isaac!”

The boy's eyes widened at how frantic his friend sounded, the way he was poised on the ground. It was unsettling, to say the least, but with how Stiles’ voice was wavering even as he asked for his help. Isaac knew something else was going on, though Stiles' eyes were still closed and he couldn’t see it he shifted and lifted his head back to let out a piercing howl. Stiles' hands shot up to his ears, trying desperately to silence the noise that he normally found interesting, now it just sounded like a threat. Like danger. Like he had to run, he had to flee. They needed to run, it wasn’t safe there for them, not with wolves around. Panting Stiles dug his hands into his hair as he covered his ears.

“They’ll be here soon okay.”

Stiles bowed his body over himself and nodded frantically, he hoped so because he was losing it.

 

************************

 

Erica was plating the last of the food when they all stilled, the sound of Isaac’s howl causing them all to freeze.

“Shit!” Scott raced for the door, the sound of the Beta’s howl sending him into overdrive. Derek was right behind him. Erica and Boyd made to follow, but Derek called back.

“Stay here.”

They whined at the Alpha’s order but did as ordered. Standing in the open doorway watching as the Alpha’s raced off into the woods.

“Somethings wrong.” Boyd mumbled.

Erica nodded, silence reigned for only a moment. “Issac sounded scared.”

 

********

 

As they raced towards the direction of the howl Scott glanced over to Derek and said. “You said this would help!”

Derek glared back at Scott, running around a tree before he replied. “It was supposed to Scott. This isn’t exactly a known science or anything, I’m going off of what I know from pack behavior.”

Scott growled at the other Alpha. “He’s not a wolf though!”

Derek flashed his eyes in warning to the boys challenging voice. “I know that, but it's all we got.”

Scott shook his head and looked forward instead of continuing the pointless argument. When they finally found the pair, they found Isaac kneeling before Stiles who was curled around himself. Issac sprung to his feet and held his hands out, causing the Alpha’s to slam to a halt.

“He’s...I don’t know, but he doesn’t want to be touched.”

They nodded as they came closer, cautiously encroaching on where the teen was curled up on the ground.

Kneeling down Scott carefully asked. “You okay buddy?”

Stiles was silent, his hands clenched around his ears. Scott frowned at the tight grasp his friend had on himself.

“You’re going to hurt yourself.” He had to restrain himself from reaching up to peel his friend's white-knuckled grasp of himself, Isaac’s earlier words halting him.

“Shut up!”

Scott’s eyes widened, he glanced to Isaac for some sort of help since he had been with the boy. 

Issac whined before saying in a quiet voice. “He freaked out all of the sudden and told me to call you...He told me to be quiet and not touch him.” Isaac looked back to Stiles as if waiting for something more to happen, but Stiles didn’t add to the conversation.

Scott frowned as he glanced back to Stiles. If they couldn’t talk to him or touch him there wasn’t much they could do. Derek seemed to think along the same lines because the Alpha was scowling at the still form. The boy was panting, his body shaking as he continued to hold his hands tightly over his ears, each digging into his scalp as if they went just a tad deeper they might make whatever was wrong, right. 

It was in that instant that Derek wondered if he had gotten another sense from his creature side and was being overwhelmed. It was the only thing he could think that would cause Stiles to react so negatively to their voices. In a bare whisper, something a human would barely be able to hear he asked. “Do your ears hurt?”

Stiles jerked a bit upon hearing him, Derek didn’t need to know the answer if that was how the boy was going to react. About to give the other two orders on what to do, he was surprised when Stiles bit out through clenched teeth.

“Your voices...Your voices hurt.”

Frowning Derek asked. “The volume you mean?”

Stiles shook his head. “No...No your voices, just your voices...Stop talking. Please.”

He gritted out desperately, the desperate tone of the teen's voice had the wolves swallowing tensely. Any questions they might have had for the teen forgotten.

Confused as to what the boy was talking about, Derek looked up to the others, they were just as confused as he was. If it wasn’t the volume of their voices that was causing him discomfort than they had no clue what Stiles meant by their voices hurting him.

Scott reached out then, unsure what else to do to help his friend. His hand had barely touched Stiles when the boy screamed and jerked back. Falling backward and scrambling until his back hit a tree where he curled over himself again. Scott looked down at his hand in shock as if expecting to see his claws had come out unbidden and that he’d somehow hurt the boy. They weren’t and he hadn’t. How had he hurt him? He hadn’t touched him with more than his fingertips. 

Derek’s frown turned into an outright scowl, something was seriously wrong here and he didn’t like it. A pack member was suffering and they didn’t seem to be able to help him, what was worse was that Stiles wasn’t all that capable at the moment in telling them what he needed. Other than to be quiet and not touch him.

Issac’s quiet voice caused him to turn and look at the Beta. “Maybe we should call Deaton...Or Chris?”

Derek nodded his head, rising to his feet once more he pulled out his phone intent on calling one or both until he found an answer, the Alpha wasn’t overly sure that either would have any clue on what was wrong with the teen. If it wasn’t the boy's senses changing, Derek wasn’t sure what the cause could be for the strange behavior. As he turned to leave, prepared to make the phone calls he paused, staring down at the phone a moment before he looked over to Stiles. Remembering the boy's voice calling out ‘your voices hurt’ had him turning and walking a ways away. Scott and Isaac watched him confused for a moment before he held up his phone and put a finger to his mouth. They nodded and watched him disappear into the woods, hopefully, if he was far enough away Stiles wouldn’t become freaked out by it. The pair turned and watched as Stiles continued to hold onto himself tightly, his eyes screwed shut as he curled around himself protectively.

 

*********************

 

“Deaton”

“Ah Derek, what can-”

“Somethings wrong with Stiles.” He cut right to the chase rather than letting the druid a chance to talk.

There was a brief paused before the vet asked. “What kind of something?”

“I don’t know that’s why I called you.” Derek bit out. “Stiles told Isaac not to touch him, not to talk and when Scott and me got here he said our voices hurt and he won't let us touch him either.”

“Hmm...Interesting.”

Gritting his teeth at the man’s intrigued tone, he made Stiles sound like some kind of fascinating science experiment. His wolf agitated by the thought of the man finding Stiles suffering something to study rather than getting straight into how he might be able to help the teen.

“When did this happen?”

“Twenty minutes or so...He went for a run with Isaac out in the woods to burn some anxiety off. He started to freak out all of the sudden and now he won't let us get near him.”

The man was silent a moment. “And before this, you could touch him?”

Derek frowned, he wanted to shout ‘yes’, but he suddenly realized that no one had touched Stiles all that much lately. The boy had punched him early in the morning, played with them out in the woods, but that had been hours ago and since then Stiles hadn’t touched or been touched by anyone.

“Derek?”

Sighing the wolf said. “No one’s touched him, but he didn’t act like he didn’t want to be touched, it just didn’t happen.”

“I see...And I take it you’ve been talking to him just fine before this?”

“Yes.” 

Another pause.

“And the run, what caused him to want to do this?”

“He was pacing in my loft, I remembered how some of the new werewolves like to pace when agitated and that running helped so I suggested he go for a run with Isaac.”

“Good...Yes your not wrong there. It does help with the anxiety before their first shift and-”

Not in the mood to go over what he’d done ‘right’ since it hadn’t helped Stiles, the Alpha barked out. “Deaton. Stiles. What is wrong with Stiles?!”

Sighing the vet droned in a tired fashion as if being chewed out by the Alpha was more boring than actually threatening. “I don’t know, I can only speculate-”

“Speculate.” Derek gritted out. 

The vet huffed a bit before stating. “Speculating on what you’ve told me, I would say that its the Bastili getting closer to the surface. The eclipse is only a few hours away.”

“I know that!”

“Yes well, Bastili haven’t been known to associate with other creatures besides humans. You are in fact a werewolf and I believe myself and Chris have warned you about possible...Issues because of this.”

“So this is our fault?”

The vet snorted. “Not in so many words, but I suppose, his Bastili is most likely finding you all to be a threat. Its probably giving Stiles a sense of unease around you. A Bastili’s instincts when threatened are to flee and hide, they don’t attack unless they need too.”

Derek nodded his head, that made sense. “So he wants to run from us?”

“Most likely. If he hasn’t attacked you yet then he’s still fighting the urge to run.”

“He couldn’t hurt us even if he did.” Derek remarked as he glanced over his shoulder back towards where he’d left the others. Thus far there had been no noise, he knew that was because Scott and Isaac were following Stiles’ new ‘rules’. 

“That’s not the point Derek. Right now he’s fighting what will soon be natural instincts, you touching or talking to him are just amping up the distress he is feeling. The Bastili is most likely agitated at being ignored, it's just trying to defend itself.”

“But Stiles knows us and doesn’t want to run.”

“Exactly.” The druid hummed in pleasure to finally being listened to. “You’re in the woods you said?”

“Yes.”

The vet hmm’d at that. “Getting him back to the loft is going to be tricky if you can't touch him at the moment let alone talk to him...How badly does he react to your voices?”

Sighing Derek said. “He’s about to pull his own ears off.”

“Ah...Yes, well to the Bastili your voices are most likely synonymous with a threat.” Then as if thinking better of it explained it to the Alpha. “Stiles’ not really hearing you, he’s hearing a wolf. In this case a pack of wolves surrounding him.”

Cursing Derek couldn’t help but state. “It's just me and Scott and Isaac, I told Boyd and Erica to stay behind.”

“That’s good...The more of you there are crowding him the worse this will get. Try to reason with him, he knows your faces, even if your voices are hurting him you can instruct him to get up and walk.”

“His eyes are closed.” Derek huffed. “He’s curled up in a ball on the ground.”

The vet was silent a moment. “Why?”

“His eyes changed early this morning...They’re sensitive I guess and he’s been keeping them closed periodically. Right now they’re closed. How do we instruct him if he won't look at us?”

Sighing Deaton said. “Well, if you really have too I suppose you could just forcefully drag him back.”

Derek growled at the druid’s devil may care attitude to what he knew would be something horrific to the teen at the current moment. “He’d scream Deaton, he’s terrified!”

The druid didn’t mince words, clearly and concisely replying. “And you can't let him stay out there until the eclipse comes, you need to get him back to the loft before the eclipse takes hold. Try and reason with him, if that fails. Do whatever you have too to make sure he’s back in the loft before its time. I’m sure that Stiles will forgive you.”

Glaring at the ground at the vet's sure tone of voice, Derek growled out. “Goodbye.” Derek was done talking with Deaton, whatever ‘help’ the man had offered him wasn’t much to go on and he wasn’t prepared to get physical with Stiles.

Undeterred by the Alpha’s clipped goodbye, the druid called out. “Call me if anything changes.”

Derek shut off the call before the emissary could make any more demands of him, he wasn’t in a mood to deal with the man’s fascination with Stiles. Taking a deep breath he turned and headed back towards where he had left Stiles and the others. Derek hoped that they wouldn’t have to force the boy, he didn’t want to be the reason for his screams of terror. He couldn’t be.

 


	19. Not pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles' transformation is nearly here and as time draws closer and closer the teen begins to fell the real pressure of it, shame that the Bastili inside him feels the same way. The pack has to deal with a side effect none of them were truly prepared for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S HERE! The transformation has begun! I know you've all been eagerly awaiting the chance to not only see how Stile's transformation goes but also what he looks like. I hope that you'll all enjoy the first taste of what the Bastili really is. 
> 
> Also, a heads up about this chapter...It's hella long which is great for you guys but wasn't for me, I didn't have the time to edit as I normally do because I started a new medication that basically put me into a medicated coma on my editing day...That was fun. So, there are going to be more errors than usual and the capitalizations that I normally go back and fix aren't going to be there. So sorry for that if that bothers you.

Issac and Scott had stayed where they were, not wanting to scare Stiles anymore than they appeared to already be doing just by existing. They kept giving each other glances but refused to talk in case their voices really were hurting Stiles. The boy was still panting, his hands clawing at his own head as if trying to block something out. Despite wanting to stop the boy from hurting himself, they held back for fear of how Stiles would react to either of them actually touching him. If his prior reaction to Scott was anything to go by, it wouldn’t be good. Their heads twisted about when they heard Derek coming back. The Alpha appeared a few moments later and the look on his face did nothing to help their anxiety. The Alpha ignored them though and instead headed straight for Stiles. 

Derek knelt down a few feet before the boy. Derek was scowling at the boy's quivering form, unsure how he was going to go about getting the boy to listen to him. He watched the boy a moment, taking in his shaking, his panting and the way his hands were curled over his ears and clawing into his scalp. Derek couldn’t touch Stiles to get him to open his eyes, he couldn’t talk to him either...But if noises weren’t really an issue. The Alpha held up a hand and snapped his fingers. 

Stiles' head jerked up and his newly turned green eyes opened for the first time. Stiles jerked back from him, but his eyes went to his finger before coming back to his face. There was fear there, trepidation, but also recognition. Smirking at the boy Derek didn’t speak, instead, he pointed to beyond the boy's shoulder. Stiles turned and looked. There was nothing there, turning back around he was frowning. Derek pointed again. Stiles' hands loosened a bit on his head when he realized the Alpha wasn’t going to speak.

“the loft?” He questioned in a bare whisper.

Derek nodded. Stiles glanced back behind him one last time before looking back at Derek and then over his shoulder to Isaac and Scott. Swallowing Stiles said in an obviously fearful tone.

“no...No voices.” Stiles licked his lips as he fought to explain. “I-i just can’t handle them.”

The wolves nodded. Stiles took a shuddering breath at the movement, but eventually nodded with them, before also stipulating. “....Ke-keep back...A way A  little.”

Derek stood, ignoring the boys flinch and joined Scott and Isaac a ways back. Stiles untensed and after watching them a moment rose unsteadily to his feet. He was still pressed against the tree, but the tenseness was beginning to subside the longer the wolves stayed immobile and quiet. 

Stiles stared at the wolves, silently contemplating all the racing thoughts going through his head. None of which he would want to state out loud, they weren’t very kind thoughts to his friends. He’d have to think about that later when his head didn’t feel like it was being run over by a freight truck. First, he needed to get back to the loft and to do that he needed to keep the wolves at bay. Literally.

“i-i’m going to go now...Back...Back there...I-i d-don’t know what to do though...It’s al-” he rambled as he fought against the ‘advice’ in his head saying he should run the other direction, these thoughts were cut off just like his words when Derek moved.

Stiles looked up when Derek shook his head and pointed again. Nodding when he got the picture Stiles slowly turned and started walking towards the loft. The wolfs intentions clear. ‘We’ll figure it out when we get there’. Swallowing tightly Stiles walked, glancing over his shoulder way too much for his normal paranoia levels. 

The wolves kept a distance, though a part of Stiles knew it was mostly Derek’s doing keeping them from crowding him. He could tell as he glanced back at them again that Scott and Isaac wanted to be walking beside him. That they wanted to touch him, talk to him and offer whatever comfort they could. Stiles couldn’t handle that though. The nagging sensation in his head wanted him to run again, to flee and lose the wolves in the woods. His shuddering breaths ramping up the longer it told him to flee.

Stiles fought back against it, he knew where he needed to go. Derek had told him, back to the loft. The loft was safe, it was where the pack was. Stiles paused as his brain rallied against that. ‘Were not pack’. Swallowing the teen glanced back to the wolves. ‘Threat’. Shaking his head Stiles turned and started walking some more. ‘Run’. He bit his lip. ‘Run’. He put one foot in front of the other. ‘Run’. He tried desperately to ignore the thoughts going through his head. He could hear them walking behind him and his brain kept sending him. ‘Threat, run, hide, flee.’ Stiles didn’t understand why this was happening, they were his friends. They were pack. ‘Danger. Run.’ Stiles shook his head again, trying to clear his mind from the invasive thoughts. They were his friends, they were pack. He was pack, the pack protected one another, they wouldn’t hurt him. ‘Threats, predators, dangerous, run, flee, hide.’

Stiles braced himself against a tree as he panted. He needed a moment to catch his breath, the anxiety crawling through his body, the itch in his legs to run, to follow the thoughts in his head’s advice. It was getting to be too much. Looking over his shoulder he saw the three wolves standing off at a distance. Giving him space. ‘Threat’. Frowning Stiles stared at the wolves longer, fighting the voice in his head. He reasoned within himself, bare facts that he knew to be true. They’re my friends, they won't hurt me. ‘They’ll hurt us, hunt us.’ Stiles swallowed laxly as his eyes widened, he wasn’t an us. His brain didn’t seem to think that way anymore and wasn’t that just terrifying.

‘run’ shaking his head once more, Stiles tried to clear his head. It didn’t work, the second his eyes latched onto the wolves again the voice was back. ‘Threat. Run, flee. Hide.’ Taking a shuddering breath, Stiles exhaled just as shakily as he’d inhaled. Twisting around he started walking again. He needed to get back to the loft, they needed to lock him in. ‘No, run, flee, hide, no cage.’ The teen gritted his teeth as the thing in his head took in what he was thinking. Stiles was going to tell them to lock him down, to make sure he couldn’t get out again. That this thing...Couldn’t get out.

The voice cried out at that. ‘No run!’ Stiles stumbled at that, bracing himself against a tree as he panted. Barely catching his footing as the voice roared in his ears just as loudly if not louder than the blood pumping in his ears. ‘Run, run, run’. Swallowing Stiles glanced up and froze. Erica and Boyd were standing in the doorway to the loft, concern etched on their faces. But that didn’t matter, all the voice saw was more threats to them. ‘More wolves, more danger. Surrounded, run.’ Stiles' hands clamped around the tree like a lifeline, his nails biting into the bark as he let out a stuttered cry to the wolves.

“d-don’t move.”

Erica and Boyd froze, they had barely taken a step out the door but stopped when they registered Stiles voice. Erica’s mouth came open no doubt to ask what was wrong, but Stiles shouted.

“don’t talk!”

She clamped her mouth shut, the total befuddlement on the girl's face was ignored by the teen who had given the order. Stiles panted, letting his head fall to stare at the ground as he held on for dear life against the tree. ‘We need to run’ no. No, they...He didn’t. He was safe. They were his friends, his pack. ‘Wolves, danger. Threat.’ Shuddering for what felt like the millionth time, Stiles hands tightened on the tree bark. It dug into his palms, but that didn’t matter to him. The pain wasn’t even registerable compared to what his brain was doing to him. ‘Run’. No, he wouldn’t run. He wouldn’t. Stiles was safe here, the pack would protect him. ‘Danger, wolves.’ Stiles was about to argue again when his head jerked up.

 

****** 

 

A truck was coming up the driveway, Chris Argents truck. The truck pulled in front of the loft, stagnant between both parties. When the hunter got out of the truck he looked between the weird standoff, clearly sensing that something was wrong.

“what's going on?”

‘oh thank god.’ Stiles thought as he stayed braced against the tree, the man’s voice did nothing, well nothing dangerous at least. ‘Human’ that was it...Nothing bad.

“Chris.”

The hunter turned and looked at the teen who had called out to him, saw Stiles holding on for dear life against a tree and took a step forward. The hunter paused after seeing the boys unnaturally green eyes.

“Stiles?”  He cautioned.

Stiles nodded his head jerkily, the hunter still didn’t come closer.

Chris took another glance around to the pack before his eyes settled on the teen who seemed to be holding them all in position. “What’s wrong? Why is everyo-”

“they can't move...They can't.” Stiles shook his head, he wasn’t sure how to get it through to the hunter, none of it even made sense to him. 

The hunter glanced around at the wolves taking note of where everyone was, the two in the doorway to the loft and the three a ways back from Stiles. They weren’t paralyzed, they’d be on the ground if they were he reasoned, but they still weren’t moving.

“Stiles, why can't they move?”

The boy shook his head frantically for a moment, wetting his lips as he voiced in a pained manner. “Threat...They’re a threat.”

Erica and Boyd tensed in the doorway upon hearing the boys words, Likewise, the wolves behind Stiles tensed up. Stiles flinched when he saw Erica and Boyd shift at his words, he knew that the same must have happened behind him but he didn’t look to see if it was true. Chris tilted his head to the boy, taking in the boys present position and body posture. “So you told them to hold still?”

Stiles nodded. 

Chris looked over the boy's shoulder and asked. “How long has this been going on?”

No one replied to his question, frowning the hunter was about to ask what was going on when Stiles rasped out.

“they-they can’t talk either.”

Chris frown turned solely onto the one person who was speaking with him. “Why can't they talk Stiles?”

“thr-”

Sensing the repetitive motion that this conversation was going to go, Chris interjected. “Okay...Okay, I get it.” Glancing back to Derek the hunter said. “Want me to get him inside.”

The Alpha nodded. Chris turned to look at Erica and Boyd, ascertaining the best way to do that. He met their gaze. “Okay, stay put, we're going to do a bit of moving about.”

Chris looked to Stiles. “Can I come over there Stiles? Am I threat?”

Stiles shook his head, but before they could all deflate upon hearing that he thought the hunter was a threat, the boy called out. “Not a threat...Human.”

Chris smirked at the simplistic response. “That’s right, just a human.”

The hunter walked slowly just to be sure he wouldn’t startle the boy, once he was close enough he reached out and put a hand on the boy's tense arm. Stiles hand came off the tree and grasped his bicep harder than he thought the boy could grasp anything. It wasn’t supernatural strength, but it showed Chris just how freaked out the boy was. Nodding he pulled Stiles into his side using his body as some sort of barrier between the boy and the apparent ‘threat’ that the pack made to him.

“it's okay we're just going to walk over there.”

Stiles jerked a bit at that, his eyes latching onto the wolves in the doorway. ‘Threat.’ It rang inside his head, causing Stiles to clench his jaw. He was barely able to voice what he was feeling to them. “C-cant...W-wolves.”

The two Beta’s looked crestfallen, but Chris ignored that as he explained to everyone.

“I know, that’s why they're going to move away slowly and we’ll wait until their gone to move over there okay?”

Stiles nodded jerkily against the man’s torso, Chris looked over to Erica and Boyd and instructed them. “Move slowly, walk away and when you get into the tree line don’t move a muscle.”

The wolves nodded and slowly began walking over towards the tree’s as the hunter had told them to do. Stiles flinched when they started moving, but slowly untensed when he saw them leaving. 

Chris looked down at the spooked boy. “Alright, we're just going to take this nice and easy okay Stiles? Just gonna walk slowly over there and go inside.”

Stiles nodded, following the hunters lead he slowly walked alongside him, letting the man guide him back towards the loft's door. His head jerked around to make sure none of the wolves were moving, they weren’t. The looks of pain on their faces ate at Stiles, his friends, he was hurting his friends. ‘No, threats, danger, wolves.’. Stiles took harsh breaths as he shuddered in Chris’ grasp. Together they slowly made it to the door, it wasn’t until they were inside that Chris loosened his hold a bit to guide Stiles over towards the large window. Keeping him on the opposite side of the loft and providing a large space between him and the door. Stiles knew the pack would be coming in soon, the door would close and Stiles knew he would be trapped. Whatever relief that would have normally caused him logically, was gone. All he could sense was that a threat was going to be coming closer and that he was going to be trapped inside with it. With them.

Chris could sense that whatever instincts were ruling the boy were about to go haywire. So he held the boy against the wall and asked. “Do you recognize them?”

Stiles nodded his head, of course, he recognized them, it was just that he couldn’t get rid of the thing in his head. “Voice...In my head...Won't shut up.”

Chris nodded, not exactly sure what that meant the hunter questioned. “Okay, what’s it saying?”

“threats...They're dangerous...Wolves...Run, have to run.” Stiles surged forward a bit, but Chris easily pinned him again.

“easy Stiles. You don’t have to run okay? Nothings going to happen. Your safe in here. You know that, your safe with the pack.”

Stiles' head jerked between a nod that he agreed and a shake that showed how conflicted he truly was about it all. Sighing Chris advised the conflicted teen. “Try and hold onto the knowledge that they’re your friends. Forget pack, or wolves, just focus on them being your friends.”

Stiles looked up to him with a pained look on his face. “I-i I can't do this. Chris-i can’t.”

“yes you can, now calm down and try and ignore the voice okay? It's not you, you know who you are Stiles. You know them, they won't hurt you.”

Stiles nodded his head, clamping his eyes shut as he began to repeat a mantra to try and calm the frantic thoughts plaguing his mind. “Wont-wont hurt me...Friends. They’re my friends.”

“that’s right. Friends.”

Chris held the boy firmly when he heard the door come open. Making sure his body was in the way of the boy's line of sight to the door. Stiles’ eyes had snapped open when the door came open, sensing that he was no longer alone with just Chris.

“were just going to stand here, you and me okay? No one else is going to try and do anything. Just you and me talking okay.”

The wolves stayed in the doorway when they saw how Chris was blocking Stiles view of them. Scott shut the door and latched it. They all stood there like idiots, waiting and hoping that the hunter would calm Stiles down enough to where they wouldn’t just be ‘wolves or threats’. Hearing their friend call them that had been like a kick to the gut.

Chris ignored the presence of the wolves as he continued to talk with the shaken boy. “You're doing good Stiles. Just focus alright? There’s no one here that’s going to hurt you.”

Stiles gave a jerky nod, though his eyes kept flitting around as if he was searching for a threat to himself.

“look at me Stiles, just me.”

Stiles' eyes latched onto the hunters face.

“that’s right. See, just me. Human right? Just human.”

Stiles nodded his head, of course, Chris was just a human.

“if they were a threat, I’d know, right? I’d run, human’s run away from threats.”

They all knew that was bullshit, he was a hunter for christ sake, but with Stiles current frame of mind, Chris played on it. A normal human would run from wolves. 

Stiles watched him a moment, ultimately stating. “ A human...A person would run...You’d run if they were a threat...But their not. Their not a threat, they’re my friends.”

Chris nodded back at the teen, he could tell that Stiles was beginning to calm the longer they talked in simple facts. “That’s right.”

Stiles had to fight tooth and nail as the voice kept calling back that the wolves were a threat, that they couldn’t be his friends because they were a threat. The hunters broken down belief of humans running from wolves had molified it a bit, but not by much. It was still urging him to run. Giving a shuddering breath Stiles asked. “How-how do I stop this?”

Chris gave him an apathetic look. “You can’t Stiles. Remember it's like a bite?”

Stiles shook his head and for a moment Chris was worried the boy would refuse to accept that as truth or worse grow agitated again. 

“how do I stop the voice...From telling me to run, to...To run from them. To hide. That...That wolves are a threat.”

Chris sighed, that was one thing he couldn’t really help the kid on. “I don’t know kid, just keep telling it.”

Stiles gave a small noise of distress upon hearing that the hunter had no clue on how to help him.

“it's going to be alright Stiles...It's just the eclipse. It's you're first shift so things are all out of whack kid. It’ll settle.”

Stiles looked into the man’s eyes and wanted to believe him, but he didn’t. The man had already admitted to not knowing how to silence the voice in his head. How could Chris know if this would last, he didn’t. Chris was guessing, turning his head away from Chris he whispered. “They’re in here, aren’t they? That’s why you're holding me against the wall...So I can't see them.” He swallowed tensely. “I can tell...I-i just can.”

Chris didn’t comment on the boy's ability to ‘sense’ the others, but he assured him. “The doors locked now, you can't get out and they’ll keep their distance if it helps.”

Stiles gave a shuddering sigh, that didn’t help. Sure it kept him inside, but that didn’t mean that the voice inside his head was going to go away. That he wouldn’t feel like climbing the wall in order to get away from them despite knowing that they were his friends.

“i-i don’t want them to have to do that...I don’t think I can stand to have them near me...Don’t-don’t let me out.”

Chris nodded his head, sensing the fear in the teens own statements along with how he’d pressed himself further into the wall. “They’re not going to let you escape Stiles. You're going to be fine, I’m going to back up now okay? Let you see them, we’ll deal with it bit by bit until you’re comfortable.” Chris wasn’t sure that was entirely possible, but they needed to try.

Stiles’ grasp on Chris’s arms tightened a bit before he forced himself to let go. Wrapping his arms around himself, the teen gave a jerky nod and shut his eyes. Turning himself away from the room at large, hiding his face against the wall. Chris frowned at the sight of the boy, the dejected form that was shuddering while holding himself so tightly. Drawn tight like a bowstring in his abject fear of his friends. Turning away from the boy Chris moved and ushered he wolves closer.

“I’d suggest you don’t talk for right now, at least...Let's see if he can handle your being here at all...”

The wolves were tense as they listened to the hunter and what was expected of them, what Stiles needed of them. They each nodded though and dutifully remained silent, Chris nodded back at them when they agreed with no fuss, turning back to Stiles.

“Alright, whenever you feel your ready, they’re not going to talk, they won't even move Stiles. Just open your eyes and look at them. Remember, their your friends and they won't hurt you.”

The wolves winced as they were reminded of what the boy thought of them at the moment. They couldn’t possibly hurt the boy, they wouldn’t, but at the moment the Bastili in Stiles was saying they would. They all just hoped that his rational side would recognize them for who they really were to him. Pack. When Stiles refused to open his eyes Chris tried to get the boy to comply.

“Stiles, open your eyes.”

Stiles bit his lip, his whole body shaking he let his eyes peel open. All he could see was the wall he had twisted his face into. Despite knowing that he had to turn around, Stiles continued to stare at it a moment.

“Stiles you need to look at us, I’m right here.”

Stiles slammed his eyes closed and shook his head, the voice in his head screaming that he ‘run’. Swallowing he whispered. “I can’t.”

“you can just open your eyes. No one’s going to come towards you. You’re safe.”

Biting into his lip, Stiles ignored the taste of his blood as his teeth tore into his lip. The voice in his head was continuing to tell him to run, it just wouldn’t stop. Stiles jumped a bit when Chris continued to demand that he open his eyes and face them all.  

“Stiles, open your eyes.”

The boy made a distressed sound deep in his throat, he knew that he couldn’t prevent this. They needed to find a way to make this work, that didn’t stop every fiber of his being fighting against it. Twisting about, Stiles’ eyes landed on Chris first and foremost. The teen stared at the hunter, Chris was smiling back at him as if he was proud. Stiles didn’t even want to think about how sad that was, instead he let his eyes trail away from the hunter. Sweeping the loft’s space to locate the wolves that were now inside with him. Stiles pushed himself back into the wall and sucked in a deep breath as his eyes flitted around to each of the wolves.

“Stiles...Stiles!”

His eyes jerked over to Chris, before flitting back to the wolves. ‘Threats. Danger. Flee. Run. Hide.’

“Stiles look at me!”

His eyes barely flitted to Chris’s face before they were back on the wolves. Sighing when the boy couldn’t keep his focus on him, Chris said. “They won't hurt you Stiles, you know that. They're your friends.”

‘threat. Danger. Run.’ Letting out a sob he closed his eyes and turned away into the wall once more. Chris sighed and walked over to the boy once more, ignoring the boys flinch as he laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. “It's just me,  it’s okay.”

“it-its not though...It's not okay.”

“I know.” Chris glanced back at the pack of wolves, he saw the pain written on all of their faces. Sighing Chris was about to turn and try and console Stiles once more when he frowned. Looking to Stiles he saw the boys face scrunched up. His eyes shut tight. He wasn’t looking at the wolves, he didn’t want to hear them, to touch them...But maybe. Nodding Chris told Stiles.

“I’ll be right back. You stay right here okay, keep your eyes shut.”

Stiles nodded his head, Chris pulled away and waited to make sure the boy wasn’t going to freak out. Assured that Stiles was at least relatively okay for the moment, Chris turned and made his way over to the pack. 

“let’s talk in the other room.” He gave a glance over his shoulder to indicate that he didn’t want stile to hear, whether it was the conversation or just their voices Derek wasn’t sure. Chris sent a look to Scott, knowing the other Alpha would want to be included, but he had another task for the man. “Keep an eye on him, but don’t speak or move if you can help it. He seems pretty content to stay in the corner.” The group gave a stilted nod to the man’s words, their eyes never leaving Stiles. Turning towards Derek, Chris sighed. Derek nodded and lead Chris into the room Stiles had been holed up in for the last week and a half. 

 

************** 

 

When the duo arrived in the room Derek watched as the hunter didn’t even pause, swiftly turning to shut the door behind them. Scowling, Derek waited to see just what the hunter had wanted to speak to him about. Chris turned, gauging the scowl being directed at him. He knew the wolf wasn’t going to want to listen to what he had to say, but he still had to say it.

“the Bastili is...Rebelling.”

Derek snorted. “Rebelling? Stile-”

Chris shook his head, quickly interjecting as he knew the Alpha was about to talk about Stiles and not their present situation. “It’s confusing him, but at the moment it’s rebelling against his human nature. Stiles isn’t in tune with it like you and others are your wolves.” He held the wolfs gaze firmly. “I don’t know how to make him trust you Derek, but we have to think of something, fast.”

Derek growled at the hunter's words as if he didn’t know what was at stake. Stiles was hurting, it was clear in not only the boy's actions and words, but in the acrid scent of fear that had begun to fill the air. He was scared of them, Stiles hadn’t been scared of wolves in years now, hell, he laughed half the time they growled at him. 

“we can’t just make his Bastili side trust us.” Derek growled. “It doesn’t work like that.”

Chris nodded. “I know, it takes time to establish trust with any supernatural creature. Your pack bonds are proof enough, but we don’t have the luxury of time. I’d foolishly thought that his connection to you and the pack would be enough to keep him in control of things.”

“he’s in control.”

Chris gave the Alpha an irritated look. “No, he’s not. He’s ten seconds away from climbing your damn wall right now.” The hunter pointed out shrewdly. 

Derek looked away, he’d seen that for himself. It had hurt to see how clearly Stiles wanted nothing to do with them.

“Derek, you know this isn’t his fault he ju-”

Derek let out a loud snarl at the hunter, his eyes flaring. “It’s not his fault! It never was.”

Chris smiled, despite the fury being leveraged against him it was good to hear that Derek didn’t hold any kind of resentment towards the teen with all the changes he’d brought about so suddenly. Not that he’d figured the man would, but it was still nice to see how quickly he defended the boy.

“Right, well we still have to think of something that will help him keep things in check...Right now he can’t even stand the sight of you guys, let alone the sounds of your voices.”

Derek’s growl hadn’t tapered off throughout the man’s words, but it cut off abruptly when the Alpha spoke. “Deaton said that he’s reacting to our voices because he only hears wolves, not us.”

That was intriguing to think about, but Chris shook his head. “It doesn’t matter why we just need to think of some way to get him calm enough to realize that you’re not going to hurt him.” Before the wolf could react violently to that insinuating comment, Chris replied. “And I know you won’t hurt him Derek, but Stiles doesn’t-can’t see that right now.”

Derek huffed, he wasn’t happy about any of this, but Chris was right they needed to find some way to make Stiles see them as pack again or at the very least, friends.

Ten minutes went by, Derek idly listening for any kind of distress coming from the loft. All was silent and although that was supposed to be comforting, it wasn’t. Neither he or Chris had spoken in that amount of time, neither having a clue as to what to do for Stiles. Both refusing to return to the loft without some form of plan to offer the others, Derek’s eyes trailed back to Chris when the hunter suddenly moved. He watched with calculating eyes as the hunter walked towards the nearby dresser and picked up the glass jar he’d given to them earlier. The shimmery sand moved within it, Chris moved for the door only to be halted when Derek grabbed his wrist.

“what are you doing?” The wolf growled skeptical of the man’s motions.

Chris didn’t try to shrug off the wolfs hand, instead looking the Alpha right in the eye. “He’s developed senses from the Bastili right?”

“his eyes.” 

“if he’s got it’s sense of smell...Or is even beginning to have some of its weakness’.” The hunter let the sentence hang as he held up the jar. 

Derek’s gaze went to the jar, then back to Chris. “What will it do to him?”

Chris shook his head. “It won’t hurt him Derek, but it might be the only shot we’ve got. It should just make him more amenable to your presence, help calm him down so we can talk...All of us.” The hunter pointed out clearly.

Derek let his hand fall away from the man’s wrist, his gaze going once more to the jar the man held. He wasn’t happy to know that they might very well be drugging the teen against his will, but those same hesitations weren’t going to help resolves their current situation. Begrudgingly, Derek nodded.

Chris gave a nod as he reached for the door, opening it the pair left the bedroom and returned to the loft space.

The others turned and looked at them in confusion until they saw the jar. They scowled a moment mostly in confusion, but Derek shook his head. Chris looked at them all and held up the jar.

“we’re going to try something, no guarantee that this is going to work and even if it does...” Chris glanced towards Stiles who was once more facing the wall. “Well, there’s no telling how he’ll react.” Looking back at the pack Chris gave them a reassuring smile, he wasn’t all that sure how well it worked since he was getting wary glances back. “Look, right now his brain is on overload from the Bastili, it’s telling him that you’re all a threat.” The pack on a whole flinched upon hearing such a thing, but Chris ignored it in favor of stating. “He knows you’re not a threat guys, the Bastili is the one that’s not sure.”

There were subtle nods cast his way, the wolves anxiety plain to see. Not wanting to draw this out further if he didn’t have to, Chris turned to address Stiles. He knew the boy had to have been listening, though he’d never turned to watch the whole encounter. His eyes most likely still shut as he pressed himself into the corner. 

“Stiles I’m going to come back over to you alright?”

“y-yeah.”

With the teen aware of who was nearing him, Chris slowly made his way across the expanse of the room. Leaving the pack behind to watch as the hunter came to a stop just besides Stiles. Chris sent them all one last look, one that he hoped would help convey that he wasn’t going to hurt Stiles. Shaking his head, Chris opened the lid to the glass jar. Pouring a small bit of the sand into his hand before carefully closing the lid once more and setting the jar in the window seal a ways back to ensure it wasn’t damaged because of whatever was about to happen. Taking a breath, Chris approached the teen.

“Stiles, turn around and look at me. Just me.” He made sure that the teen knew exactly what he wanted him to do. Chris saw how Stiles had tensed, more so when he heard what the hunter wanted of him.

“c-Chris.”

“just turn around Stiles, I’m right here.”

The teen quaked a bit as he twisted to stare at the hunter, he didn’t want to see his friends. Didn’t want to hear the lies that the voice in his head kept screaming to him. Stiles knew his friends would never hurt him, but that didn’t seem to matter anymore. The voice kept getting louder and louder the longer he tried to hide away from them, it was almost as if the ‘creature’ in his head knew that he was hiding instead of running. That it knew the wolves knew where he was hiding, like that made some kind of difference. Sighing, Stiles twisted about forcing himself to locate Chris and only Chris. No sooner than had he opened his mouth to tell the hunter just how freaked out he was then did he cough and sputter, a sand-like substance being blown into his face. Stiles fell back a bit, slumping into the wall he’d been hiding against. His hand coming up to wipe at his face, only to not make it there as he groaned and fell to the floor in a heap.

“Stiles!” Scott ran forward after watching the hunter blow the mysterious dust in his friends face. The pack was right behind him, Derek even going so far as to grab Chris by the shoulder, pulling him back. 

Chris held up his hands, showing that there was no more dust in his hands. He met Derek’s gaze and assured the wolf. “He’s reacting like a Bastili would Derek, this is what we wanted, he’s fine.”

Growling at the man’s assurances, Derek shoved him aside and knelt beside his pack. Scott had already turned Stiles onto his back, but the boy was barely aware if his gaze was anything to go by. Stiles groaned as his head tilted to the side, he was blinking rapidly at them.

“Stiles? Stiles, can you hear me?”

Stiles huffed, coughing a bit as if there was debris caught in his lungs. He could hear them, hard not to with how loud Scott was being. Still, he found it inexorably hard to find his voice. He just wanted to lay down, well, he reasoned he was already doing that. Still, Stiles wasn’t all that focused on responding as he continued to blink up at them. If he’d truly been more aware the teen might have noticed how the voice quieted the same instant he’d inhaled the dust. As it was, Stiles was content to just lay there, relaxed for the first time since the Bastili started fighting him.

Derek reached out, grabbing Stiles’ chin and forcing the teen to focus solely on himself. “Stiles, can you hear us?”

Stiles blinked up at the Alpha a few moments before his eyes trailed away. Sighing, Derek released the teen's chin and twisted to glare over his shoulder at the hunter. Chris smirked at the glaring Alpha, he didn’t take the look to heart and instead used the moment to educate the group.

“that’s how a Bastili reacts to sesbania.” Chris had already gathered the glass jar holding the sand, he waved it a little to explain. “He’s alright guys, it’s meant to help relax him.”

“he’s drugged out of his gourd!” Erica shouted at the hunter.

Sighing Chris muttered. “And he’s also not screaming at the sight of you, it’s a lot like a sedative to him. Just let him relax, when he starts to come out of it we’ll hopefully have a better chance of reasoning with him about you all not being a threat to him.”

The group flinched as they were reminded why this had happened at all, Chris didn’t bring that up though he did point out. It was as he stood there that something dawned on Chris, this was a good opportunity for the pack on a whole, something that might help settle them as well as form some kind of bond with the Bastili in Stiles. “From a spectator's point of view and with what little knowledge I have about all of this, you might want to take this opportunity to scent mark him.”

They looked towards the hunter in confusion, Chris smirked. “He reacted to the sesbania, he’s smelling things like a Bastili. Let him get your scent, it might help.”

“Oh!” Isaac grinned, turning to the pack. “He can smell us now.”

They bit by bit smiled as the hunter's words sunk in, Stiles would finally understand the whole purpose of scent marking and not just from the outside of it. Stiles always let them scent mark him, laughing as they did so but he’d never truly understood it. Never understood the complexity of the different scents they all were keen to. 

“he should be able to, though I don’t know how sensitive a Bastili’s senses are compared to wolves, if he can get laid out by the sesbania, he’s smelling something.” Chris laughed.

Derek huffed but ignored the urge to react to the hunter. Choosing to focus on the small window of opportunity they had while Stiles was still drugged, he motioned to the pack giving them the go ahead. Scott sat back on his heels, letting the Beta’s crowd Stiles. The teen didn’t seem all that aware of it, though he shifted his head from time to time. His limbs twitched and attempted to move, though they didn’t get very far. Altogether Stiles appeared to be quite happy to just lay there.

“how long does it work?” Scott looked up at the hunter only to sigh when Chris shrugged at him.

“he asked me earlier...If I could smell him.” The others snorted at Isaac, the blonde huffed. “He meant the Bastili, it was right before he freaked out.”

“he smells the same.” Boyd replied passively.

Isaac nodded. “I told him that, he didn’t like my answer to be honest.”

Scott sighed, looking to his friend who was for intent and purpose was ignorant of what was going on around him. The Beta’s had already taken to scent marking the teen, small touches over the majority of his chest, neck, and head. If Stiles really could scent them, he had to have a good amount of their scent to take in. He and Derek were the only ones who hadn’t scent marked him, yet. Leaning over Scott brushed his head against Stiles’ own, trailing his wrist against Stiles’ neck at the same time. While he did this, he inhaled to see for himself if Stiles’ scent had changed, it hadn’t. Boyd had been right, Stiles still smelled like he always had. Pulling back, the Alpha looked up to the hunter who had been silently overseeing them since his explanation. “What-” Scott winced when he realized how this would sound to the man, Chris arched an eyebrow at him. “Do you know what a Bastili smells like? I mean do they have a scent that humans can detect?” If humans could smell the cat’s then they would, it was the only thing he could think of.

Chris shrugged. “I’m sure they do, but hunters aren’t real keen on documenting that type of stuff Scott, not unless it’s for hunting purposes at least.”

The teens sighed, still no answers. Scott looked to Derek, giving the older Alpha a questioning gaze. Derek glared back at him, Scott rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. The Beta’s looked back and forth between the silent head butting, it was Erica who figured out what it was really about. 

“Honestly, you’ve scent marked him before.” She muttered.

Derek scowled at her. “Well, you have.” She smiled. “And he didn’t mind then, I really don’t think he’d mind now. Drugged or not.”

Sighing, Derek chose not to open that particular can of worms. He’d gotten enough flak from the pack then, now wasn’t the time to deal with it. Moving forward towards the prone teen, Derek leaned over mimicking what Scott had done on the other side of the boy. Rubbing his face against Stiles’ face, inhaling the teen's scent even though it wasn’t needed. His hand came up to trail down the teen’s throat before Derek pulled back, he scowled when he saw the smirk on Erica’s face. He was half tempted to growl at her but didn’t want to give into her taunting. Staying knelt near the teen who continued to lay passively on the floor, Derek wondered what this was all like for Stiles. By appearances, it looked like the teen was drunk or he supposed high. He’d seen Stiles drunk before, the kid was a train wreck, luckily the teen wasn’t into any drugs. Derek would have hated to see how that would work with the spastic teen, he was bad enough when he took too much of his Adderall. 

Stiles groaned, gaining the pack's attention at once. Erica leaned over smiling at Stiles who was still blinking rapidly up at them, she carded her fingers through the boy's hair.

“we’re right here you know, whatever your tripping better work.”

The others snorted at the girl's statement.

“I don’t think his dad would be very happy to know we’ve gotten him high.” Scott muttered as he looked to Derek. “I don’t think this is quite what he had in mind.”

Derek smirked. “Probably not.”

Chris shook his head at the pack’s antics, he knew they weren’t aware of the finer points of the Bastili’s nature. They were comparing Stiles to themselves and no matter how he phrased it they seemed resolute in keeping Stiles in the pack as he was, not as a Bastili. With no more information that he could truly give them to help, Chris hoped that the little trick they’d just pulled would work. They were truly out of options at this point.

 

********** 

 

It had been just over an hour before Stiles showed any form of recognition, he’d been prone to shifting small parts of his body namely his head but hadn’t spoken in all that time. Small groans leaving him whenever he shifted himself as if it pained him somehow. The pack didn’t like to think about what that could mean for the teen.

It was as Stiles turned his head to the side once more that the heavy tongued boy muttered. “Not cool.”

“Stiles?” Scott leaned closer a hesitant smile on his face.

Stiles blinked a few times, a habit he’d developed since Chris had blown the sand like Sesbania in his face. When the teen didn’t speak up again, Scott was prepared to wait once more. None of them had to wait long before Stiles found his tongue once again. “Chris sucks.”

They laughed at the teen’s comment, the hunter sighed from where he stood just behind Derek. “Stiles focus on one of them would you.” The irritation in the man’s voice didn’t seem to register with the teen but his words did. 

Stiles hummed drowsily, turning to stare finding Boyd first. He blinked rapidly a few times in succession. They watched warily to see how the teen would react to his packmate now that he appeared to be focusing solely on Boyd.

Stiles had followed the hunter's order, but only because he couldn’t find a reason not to. Sure he was happy to just lounge there, the heavy feeling that had settled over him was abating but still warm in his blood. He could clearly see Boyd but wasn’t sure why he was being told to stare at him. 

Boyd frowned when the teen didn’t say anything back upon looking at him, his gaze turned to the Alpha’s and then Chris.

“Try talking to him.” Chris suggested.

Boyd gave a silent nod, carefully choosing his words in case Stiles registered them as a threat. “Are you waking up?”

Stiles gave a drowsy noise, one that indicated he was more confused than anything. Before the pack could fall into wait once more Stiles muttered. “I’m not asleep.”

“But you’re not awake.” The teen countered.

Stiles hummed. “Warm.”

“You’re warm?” Scott questioned, his friend had been laying on the floor for the better part of two hours and he was warm? That didn’t seem right, Derek’s flooring wasn’t the most comfortable let alone heat insulated surface in the loft. Reaching out he tentatively touched his friend's arm to see if he was warm, he was actually pretty chilly. 

Frowning Scott asked. “You sure? You’re cold Stiles.”

The teen huffed as if he was annoyed at being contradicted. “Warm.”

Scott looked to Chris even though he knew on some level that the hunter wouldn’t have a clue, the shake of the man’s head backed that up. Sighing, Scott looked back at his friend in concern.

Boyd surprised them when he continued to talk, asking a question. “Are you comfortable?”

Stiles blinked up at the dark-skinned Beta. “I’m warm.”

The teen sighed. “Yes, but is that comfortable?”

“Yeah.”

Boyd gave a nod, pleased to know that even if Stiles was physically cold he was comfortable because of whatever the sand had done to him. He looked up when Erica leaned against him, peering down at Stiles with a smile.

“How do you feel?”

“Warm.”

She snorted at the repetitive answer they seemed to be getting. “Besides that Stiles, how do you feel?”

Stiles stared back at the girl, confused for a moment as to why she was asking him that. He was comfortable, warm, and relaxed. Sleepy almost but not enough to actually drift to sleep, he just wanted to lay there. Wherever there was, he couldn’t remember exactly where he’d been before falling though he remembered the fall as he fell into a haze. 

“Stiles?”

He stared at Erica, that’s right she’d asked him a question. What was it? He hummed. “What?”

She smiled. “How do you feel?” Then as if she knew already what kind of answer she’d get, Erica amended. “Besides warm.”

The others chuckled at the boys repeated the response.

How did he feel? He was warm, relaxed, Stiles was just content. Not sure how to relate that to the curious wolf-Stiles flinched a whole body motion that stilled the pack. His mind was sluggish, tired even, but Stiles remembered what had brought this all about. They were wolves, a threat-But not. The harsh whispers and violent words that had eaten up his mind seemed at a dull roar at best. It was quiet, warm, just like he was. The fear that had seen him flinching upon dreading whatever might happen at the sight of his friends abating the longer that nothing happened. Stiles allowed himself to relax, soaking in the supernatural warmth that he’d been swallowed in.

“Stiles?” Erica questioned no small amount of dread in her voice after watching the boy suddenly react.

“I’m warm.”

The pack stared back at Stiles, confused by the repetitive response after the physical reaction they’d witnessed just moments before. None of them got the chance to ask the teen anything as Chris cut through them. “Stiles, when you look at Erica what do you see?”

The girl gave a pained look to the hunter for using her against Stiles, but Chris shook his head as he fought to get Stiles to answer them. “Stiles what do you see? Can you hear her or-”

Stiles blinked up at the girl, she seemed scared. Oh. Right, he’d been scared of them because they were wolves. But now he wasn’t, the beast quiet inside him, at least for now. With a sluggish hand Stiles reached out to the girl, Erica cautiously watched him but smirked when Stiles patted her leg. “Good puppy.”

She gave a bark of startled laughter. “I’m not a dog Stiles.”

Stiles smiled. “I know.”

Her face’s humor fell aside. “You do?”

He hummed, a smile on his face. “Wolf.”

She flinched at the simple reminder of what they were, what she was to Stiles. Stiles' hand bunched up the fabric of her pants drawing her attention, swallowing nervously she reached out and took the boys hand. “It’s okay.” She assured him.

“You’re scared.” Stiles muttered in a tired voice.

“No.” She shook her head. “Just worried.”

Stiles watched the girl, the wolf a moment before he asked. “Did Chris throw dust at you too?”

She smiled. “No, just you.”

“Mean.”

She gave a watery chuckle, relieved that the teen was still talking with her. “I-I think it helped though, didn’t it?”

The pack was waiting, eagerly hopeful that Stiles might give them a clue about how he felt now. He hadn’t lashed out at Erica, was even holding her hand, but he’d flinched just a few minutes ago and seemingly for no reason at all.

“Hmm?”

“Did it help? Y-You know I won’t hurt you right?”

Of course, Stiles knew that, but then again maybe he hadn’t said that? Maybe he’d been too locked up in his own thoughts to realize that he hadn’t told them that all was quiet. Quiet and warm. He was fine, Stiles knew who he was and who they were, what they were not only as wolves but as his friends.

“Stiles?” Scott asked carefully. “Do-Are you scared of us?”

Stiles canted his head downwards, locating Scott after a few moments. “Scared?” The confusion in the teen's voice had Scott nodding. “Yeah, are you scared of us?”

Stiles would have liked to tell his best friend that he was an idiot, but he was having trouble vocalizing what he was thinking. Was that a side effect of weird magic dust? Seemed like it, but then again wasn’t that what it was supposed to do.

“I’d give him a bit more time guys, he’s still pretty out of it.” Chris had no shortage of amusement in his voice. “He obviously recognizes you, just not so able to talk.”

Scott gave a small nod, they’d all noticed that getting real answers out of the teen was like pulling teeth. If you didn’t ask something just right Stiles didn’t respond and half the time when you did you’d have to repeat yourself. 

Isaac took the lull as an opportunity to lean close to Stiles, ignoring how Derek had grabbed the back of his shirt in some subtle warning not to pressure Stiles. He ignored it in favor of smiling at his drugged up friend. “Can you smell me?”

“Isaac.” Derek growled.

Stiles twisted his head towards the blonde and the Alpha who’d just growled. Oh, Isaac and Derek. That was nice, he’d wondered where they were. Seemed like they were all around him, which was kinda weird since he didn’t think he was in the bedroom. This definitely wasn’t the bed, but he was warm all the same so it didn’t really matter.

“Stiles.” Isaac called again in amusement. “Can you smell me?”

Stiles blinked up at the curious blonde, smell...Oh, yeah he’d asked the teen about that earlier hadn’t he. Inhaling a bit but not so much as to be obvious, Stiles processed just what he was smelling. At first, there was nothing, he was a bit downhearted to find that he couldn’t smell the wolf. But before Stiles could truly fall into some kind of depression about it, he inhaled once more and found something. It was bright, like a very bright light but there were none before his eyes. It didn’t make sense to him, this light, brightness that he couldn’t see but smell.

“What?” Stiles questioned himself more than the others, confused by what his brain was telling him.

Isaac sighed, leaning back he looked at Derek and shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

The Alpha glowered a moment longer at the Beta, pulling Isaac back further while reprimanding him. “He’s not even aware of what’s going on.” The man reminded Isaac.

“Why’s it so bright?”

The wolves all looked at Stiles in confusion.

“Bright? What’s bright?”

“His eyes were attracted to light before.” Boyd chimed in.

That had the pack looking around to see if anything in the teen's line of sight was actually light, nothing as far as they could tell. The loft was illuminated as it always was, sure there were lights on and the large window had sun filtering into the space. That didn’t explain what Stiles thought he was seeing, nothing was what they’d consider bright.

“What’s bright?” Scott tried to get an answer.

“Don’t know.” Stiles muttered. “It’s just bright...” Stiles took a deep breath, sighing when he couldn’t get his point across. Why didn’t they notice it? There it was again, as he breathed there was just this brightness...Trying to find what it might be. Stiles wracked his brain, there had to be something that was like this. Something he could use to describe it, other than bright, though that was what it was. Stiles moved his tongue in his mouth, wetting it, only to still when the brightness appeared there too upon his next breath. It was heavy at first, pressing down on his tongue before seemingly becoming air. Stiles swallowed as if to see if he could digest it, but it was just air. It hung there on his tongue, bright as ever and-Stiles realized what it was, what the brightness was that he was smelling, what he was tasting.

“Oranges.”

The pack stilled in an instant, frozen by what the teen had just said, Chris frowned when he noticed not only the packs reaction but was drawn to repeat the boy's simple statement. “Oranges?”

Isaac gave a bark of laughter. “You smell oranges?”

“Taste.”

The pack frowned, Isaac shook his head. “You can’t taste smells Stiles, your scenting though.” The teen mused happily. “You’re sure it’s oranges?”

Stiles hummed. “Bright oranges.”

Isaac didn’t get a chance to question the boy further as Chris interjected upon figuring out what the real issue was. “He’s not wrong.” They turned to look at the hunter curiously, Chris just smiled back at them. “Big cats, like Lions inhale through their mouths as well as their noses and can taste or scent things that way.”

“So he’s tasting Isaac?” Erica crowed in glee.

The Beta scowled at his packmate.

Chris chuckled at the girl's obvious delight at ribbing the other boy. “Not really, but sure.”

Before Isaac could truly get into some kind of argument with Erica about Stiles ‘tasting’ him, said teen interrupted. “I don’t want to eat Isaac.”

Scott admirably tried to stifle his own laughter, Erica did not. Isaac just gave the drugged teen a rather irritated look, his gaze shifting towards Derek. The Alpha smirked back at him, obviously amused by what the blondes curiosity had brought him. 

“That’s good Stiles, we don’t want you to eat Isaac either.” Scott choked out as he pat his friend's leg.

Stiles hummed as if that mattered to him, he tilted his head curiously towards the trio to his right. He could see that Scott was smiling with that dopey grin of his, Erica’s beaming smile was radiant as ever while Boyd's smirk was more contained just like the Beta himself. As he stared at them a moment he wondered if all of them were oranges if this was just a thing with wolves. That would be interesting now, wouldn’t it? With literally no brain to mouth filter at the moment, Stiles asked. “Are you oranges too?”

Erica threw her head back and laughed, Boyd shook his head. “No, that’s just Isaac.”

Stiles hummed, smiling at the dark-skinned Beta. “Ok.”

Isaac was pouting from the other side of the teen as Erica found great pleasure in his torment, it was clear that no one was going to back him up on the subject. Rather than continue to wallow in whatever self-pity the whole scent debacle had brought on, Isaac stated in a factual tone. “Stiles, Erica smells like coffee.”

Erica’s beaming smile fell in an instant, she scowled at Isaac. He smiled back. “Well, you do.”

Huffing the girl looked down at Stiles. “Ignore him, he’s just upset that you like how he smells.”

Stiles divided up his time looking back and forth as the two Beta’s argued, it was amusing even if he didn’t quite follow what it was all about. He’d just told them what he was tasting, but apparently, that thing was Isaac. Stiles wasn’t sure exactly how that worked, but it was pleasant all the same. Maybe that was because they were friends, but Isaac said Erica smelled of coffee. That was strange, wasn’t coffee normally bitter? Stiles wasn’t sure he could use that as the girl's scent, she was mischevious but not bitter. Stiles thoughts drifted even as his eyes canted back to Isaac as the blonde continued his argument.

Isaac choked. “I-NO! That’s not-”

Derek shook his head, patting Isaac’s back. “Let it go.”

Isaac twisted to glare at his Alpha. “You’re just saying that because you give into her.”

Derek raised a brow at that which quickly had the Beta amending. “Some of the time...When she’s annoying.”

Derek didn’t bother to reply at that, his gaze going back to the drugged teen to explain. “Scents are tricky Stiles, for the most part, we smell the same to everyone. For Isaac, Erica smells like coffee but she doesn’t smell that way to the rest of us.” He wasn’t sure how much Stiles was truly understanding at this point, but he was hoping that the lesson might stick. 

“I don’t smell like coffee, Isaac’s sense of smell is broken. At least I’m not a fruit.”

The others sighed as Erica and Isaac continued to scowl at one another, this was one argument they’d endured a few times.

Stiles ignored the ramblings of his friends, whatever bickering that was going on around him was inconsequential to what was happening in his own mind. It was crazy to know that he was actually smelling the Beta’s unique scent, that he could do that at all let alone that the wolves had been right. Everyone smelled unique. Stiles also wondered what he smelled like, now more curious than ever. 

When he’d asked in the past, Scott wouldn’t answer and had quickly shut him down about asking the rest of the pack. Stiles, of course, had only complied because Scott said that it would be inappropriate and make them uncomfortable. Apparently, that whole thing went around silently, people’s scents weren’t the topic of discussion. Stiles didn’t know why that was, it was cool, fascinating to know that he could smell just Isaac. Which also brought up the boys words, Erica. Did she smell like coffee to him or was his sense of smell different like the others? Still ignoring the battle of wills around him, Stiles turned his head towards Erica and with no hesitancy asked. “Can I smell you?”

Erica’s face went blank at the request as soon as she’d looked down at Stiles. “W-What?”

Isaac laughed, pointing at her. “Ha. Now we’ll see what you really smell like, most of the pack’s on my side.”

Erica shot the teen an icy look. “Boyd doesn’t agree with you.”

Derek quickly cut off that argument before they could go down that particular road, he still refused to talk about that subject, it was awkward enough to remember that particular conversation the first time they’d had it. “Enough.” The tinge of his Alpha lacing his words.

The Beta’s hunkered a bit upon being chastised, their gazes pulled down at Stiles movement. The teen patting Erica’s leg again right before he stated. “Good puppy.”

She snorted. “If you’re trying to make me feel better because of Derek breaking up the fight, you’re kinda failing.” Stiles didn’t seem to care cause he just continued to pat her leg, rolling her eye she questioned the pack. “Should I?”

Derek shrugged, informing her. “Sooner or later he’ll get all of our scents, up to you when.”

She gave a nod, carefully bracing an arm so she could lean over the teen. “Alright, what do I smell like?”

Stiles hummed as the girl leaned over him, her face just a few inches away from him. That was really close, he wondered what Boyd thought about that. Just as he was about to turn his head and see/ask for himself, Erica sighed. “Stiles, focus.”

His gaze once more locked on Erica, Stiles inhaled sharply about to ask her what it was she wanted again when he froze. Oh. That wasn’t oranges...Stiles scrunched up his brow, that wasn’t coffee either. His mouth came open just a hair as he made to ask a question and just as before the girl's scent fell heavy upon his tongue. Surprisingly it didn’t taste bad despite what he’d thought it would, non-food items shouldn’t taste good right? Yet, the girl's scent didn’t make him choke on it, it was still as fluid as Isaac’s had been. 

Stiles heard Erica sigh, she was about to move away from him when he managed to get his arm up and snag her shirt. Right in the middle of said shirt and between the buxom chest. She looked down at the hand grasping her shirt now, smirking at the teen she stated. “I wouldn’t get frisky with me Stiles, Boyd might not like that.” Her boyfriend snorted from behind her, obviously not threatened by Stiles grabbing his girlfriend by the shirt. 

Stiles just stared up at her, holding her hostage or as close to it as her friend could manage. Erica could see the slight tremors in the boy's arm, he wasn’t strong enough to keep a hold of her yet. That sand really did a number on him, giving him a patient smile she reached down to grasp the boy's hand. Slowly untangling it from her shirt, Stiles fingers wrapped around her hand which she allowed as she sat back. Stiles canted his head to stare at her as if he was solving some kind of puzzle that they weren’t privy to. 

“I think he’s going to be pretty relaxed for a while yet guys, I can stay if you want me too but I don’t think your presence is bothering him anymore.” Chris smiled at them.

Derek glanced at Scott to see what his fellow Alpha might say, he didn’t believe the hunter's presence would matter now. Even if Stiles did freak out again, there wasn’t more to be done. Scott appeared to mirror his thoughts to some degree, the teen shaking his head. “I think we’ve got him handled. Thank you for helping us.”

Chris gave a nod. “No problem, if he gets uppity again just throw some at him, he’ll go down like a sack of  bricks again.” The hunter smiled.

“We can’t like overdose him can we?” Isaac questioned with a grimace.

The hunter shook his head. “It won’t hurt him, Isaac, it’s not like wolfsbane. It’s just a sedative, just like you guys he’ll metabolize it once his healing kicks into gear and it’ll leave his system.”

“So long as it doesn’t hurt him.” Derek replied.

“It won’t.”

Feeling a bit better about the prospects of using the sand against Stiles again, Derek thanked the hunter and rose to escort him out of the loft. Leaving the pack to tend to Stiles. 

 

********** 

 

Stiles twisted his head when he caught movement from the side of his eye, Derek and Chris were standing now. He watched them walk off, out of his range of sight. Frowning, the teen wondered what that was about, why were they leaving? Were they coming back and if so when? Stiles stared at the blank space the two men had occupied just a few moments before, waiting as if from one blink to the next might make the two men reappear. The teen still had a hold of Erica’s hand, but that was irrelevant in the face of this new dilemma even as he was struggling to focus on the new scents he was registering. 

Scott frowned upon seeing his best friend stare into space, it took a moment for him to realize that Stiles was looking right at where Derek and Chris had been standing. Curious, the teen questioned. “Stiles, Derek will be back in a minute.”

The pack looked at him, perplexed by the Alpha’s words. They all knew that Derek had just left to escort Chris back outside, why was he bothering to state that to Stiles?

“They’re gone.”

“Derek just went outside.” Isaac informed the confused teen all while giving Scott a befuddled look.

The Alpha shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I just noticed it.”

“He’s like a lost puppy, he’s looking for them because they left.” Erica announced with a small amount of mirth.

Stiles twisted his head to stare at her, he wasn’t a puppy she was. Frowning up at the smirking girl, Stiles informed her quite clearly. “You’re a puppy.”

She laughed at not only his rebuttal but because he was pouting. “Sure Stiles.”

The laid out teen continued to stare at Erica a moment as if that would drive home his point of her being the ‘puppy’. It didn’t really work seeing as the girl was smiling down at him in what Stiles could only determine was an oblivious nature. Discouraged at the girl and those around him, who all appeared to be clueless as to what he was going through Stiles focused solely on Erica once more. It was clear that Derek was gone, to where he wasn’t quite sure. Stiles knew Scott had said something about him coming back but that didn’t really stick all that long in his foggy brain. He was finding it easier to focus on those around him, but thoughts still drifted away now and again. Namely, in what people were telling him because that wasn’t nearly as important as the observations he was making on his own. 

“You smell soft.”

Erica blinked, ignoring Isaac’s cackling of the boy's strange words. “Soft?”

Stiles hummed, it was Boyd who helped the rest of the pack connect. “He said Isaac was bright, he connected that to oranges eventually.” Looking to his girlfriend he shrugged. “What is soft to him?”

Erica pursed her lips. “Not a clue, doesn’t make much sense to me.”

“She’s right, she doesn’t smell ‘soft’ to any of us.” 

“Yeah, coffee’s not exactly soft.” Isaac murmured, only to smile when Erica shot him a hate-filled glare.

Rolling his eyes Scott muttered. “Well, she doesn’t smell soft to me, Derek and Boyd, she doesn’t smell soft to you right?”

Boyd shook his head. “Not soft.” The boy replied.

Nodding the Alpha didn’t mention that the teen still refused to say what Erica smelled like to him, Derek had told them all to leave it alone and that he didn’t particularly want to know. Most likely because of the awkward conversation that had been happened because of it. Scott was still very curious about that, but if Boyd didn’t find her ‘soft’ then it didn’t matter. Erica’s scent to him and Derek smelled the same and it definitely wasn’t soft. 

As the group tried to figure out what Stiles could possibly mean by his unique turn of phrase, the teen himself patted Erica’s leg once more gaining their attention.

Erica smiled down at him. “What Stiles?”

“Soft.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah and?” She queried in the hope that the other boy might manage to find the right words to describe her scent to them. Stiles stared up at her a moment and just as she was about to return to her conversation with the others, Stiles said something that caught their attention.

“cotton.”

Erica looked back down at Stiles, confusion written across her face. “Cotton?”

“Do you mean cotton candy?” Scott asked while leaning forward, giving Erica an appraising look as if he was judging her scent by what Stiles had just said. Stiles didn’t answer Scott, he just lay there waiting. Surely they understood him, it was just like with Isaac. Erica’s scent was there, whatever it truly was didn’t matter because Stiles knew it. He supposed that didn’t make much sense to them, most likely because he couldn’t remember telling them that.

Erica glared back at the Alpha but quickly turned a smile onto Stiles. “How do I smell like cotton to you?”

“What does cotton even smell like?” Isaac wondered aloud.

Boyd shrugged from beside Erica, the action was mirrored by Scott. Erica ignored the commentary around them as she focused on Stiles who was smiling up at her. 

“Cotton.”

Smirking Erica gave a nod. “Alright then, I hope that’s a good thing.”

Stiles patted her leg once more, idly drawing her attention to that before their eyes met. “It’s good.” He assured her.

“Well that’s good, I would be quite upset if you said I smelled bad.”

The others snorted upon hearing the girls statement, it wasn’t like they could do anything if any of them did smell bad to Stiles. Scents weren’t something that they could change, they were just there. 

“Well, at least you don’t smell like cotton candy.” Isaac chimed in. “Makes you sound like a hooker.”

She growled at the laughing teen but sputtered when Derek came walking back towards them. Kneeling beside Isaac once more all while asking. “What’s going on? Why are you talking about hookers?” The scowl on the man’s face had Isaac cracking up, Scott coughed a few times as if to try and contain himself. Erica flushed and shook her head frantically all while attempting to defend herself. “Stiles said I smell like cotton...These assholes were saying that it’s better than me smelling like cotton candy.”

Derek raised a brow. “Because?”

Isaac snickered. “Cause, cotton candy is like a hookers name.” 

Sighing at the childish antics of his pack, Derek looked at Stiles to see that the teen was happily glancing about. Still content to just lay there. “Cotton huh?”

Erica hummed. “We’ve been trying to figure out what that even smells like.”

Derek shook his head. “Even if you went and found cotton, it wouldn’t smell exactly like you Erica. Scents are subjective.”

“I know that...But still, I don’t even know what cotton smells like.”

Derek shrugged, their attention wavering when Stiles piped up. “Can I smell more stuff?”

They chuckled.

“Like what dude? You want to smell us?” Scott was laughing even as he ‘offered’. 

Stiles hummed. “What’s my dad smell like?”

The pack looked to each other, confused by the random question but Scott was already answering his friend before any of the pack could ask why Stiles wanted to know. “He smells like coffee to me.” Scott looked to Erica with a shrug.

She huffed. “Well, I suppose you’re right, he actually smells like coffee.” That was said with a glower towards Isaac. The blonde snorted back at her, not the least bit put out by her jibe. 

“Oh.” Stiles uttered frankly, before adding. “He drinks a lot of that.”

The pack chuckled at the simple response, then out of the blue Stiles asked. “What do I smell like?”

The pack looked around to each other, they weren’t sure if Stiles’ scent on a whole would change once he had shifted for the first time or not. Scott took that into consideration even as he stated. “Your scent might change...We’re not sure, but right now you smell like ink and paper.”

Stiles scrunched up his face. “I smell like paper?”

Isaac sighed. “It’s complicated, but yeah sorta. Like a newspaper Stiles, you can smell the paper and the ink that’s printed on it right?”

Stiles gave a small nod, the first time he’d showed any substantial movement of his head. 

“Like that.” Isaac assured him.

“You smell like chemicals.”

The pack looked to Derek, but the Alpha ignored them in favor of explaining to Stiles. “There’s a...Sharp edge to your scent, it’s from your Adderall.”

“Oh, yeah...I always ignore that.” Scott said with a smile.

Derek rolled his eyes, the others had no problem casting aside the strange bite to the boy's scent. He’d never had that much luck, being a born wolf his senses were a bit more complex than their own. 

“Does it smell bad?”

“Just...Off.” Derek concluded, truthfully it smelled vile to him...It tainted Stiles’ own scent, Derek was thankful when Stiles didn’t take too much of it, but whenever the teen took too many it was nearly unbearable. It made Stiles smell like poison, something that the teen shouldn’t have smelled like.

“Paper and ink.” Stiles mused a moment. “Comic books?”

Isaac and Scott chuckled, both fans of the same thing. “Sure.” Scott smiled. “You smell like comic books.”

Isaac was shaking his head at the simplified extension of the boy's scent. It was Erica that pushed the boundaries. “You smell different to Derek though...Besides the comic books I mean.” She smiled back at the older man who started growling at her.

Scott shook his head. “Do we really need to get into that?” The pain lacing his voice was ignored as Erica stated.

“Turn about’s fair play Derek.”

“Don’t.” The Alpha warned sharply.

She huffed. “I’m simply stating that you scent him differently than we do, it’s no different than me smelling like cotton to him while he agrees with us on Isaac.” She stated it all with an air of ‘I didn’t do anything’. Based on Derek’s scowl, he didn’t agree and the rest of the pack weren’t fooled.

“Derek doesn’t like comics.” Stiles interjected. “Is that why I smell different?” Stiles canted his head towards the Alpha seemingly more aware.

Derek met the teens clearing eyes before shaking his head. “Scents are more complex than that.”

“Oh.” Stiles retorted. 

“Your scent might change though.” Isaac interrupted as he tried to help derail any conversation that might link back to ‘that’ conversation. “We’re not sure since the whole Bastili thing happened.”

Stiles met the blonde's gaze. “You said I smelled normal.”

“Well, yeah right now you do.” Isaac shrugged. “But you’re changing tonight, so it might change with you.”

Stiles hummed before asking. “What does a cat smell like?”

The group chuckled at the lame question.

“Just because the Bastili is a cat doesn’t mean you’ll smell like a cat in general. We don’t smell like wolves you know.” Erica stated factually.

“Maybe.”

Stiles surprised them not a moment later when he managed to pull himself up onto his elbows, he met their gazes one by one before muttering. “Chris is a genius and an asshole FYI.”

They laughed at the boy's snide retort.

“But it worked right?” Scott said with a smile.

Stiles sighed. “Seems so...I mean, it still bothers a part of me, but not...So confusing.” Stiles grumbled irritably.

“Well, you’ve been talking to us, we’ve been touching you.” Erica stated as she grasped his hand again. 

Stiles looked at where their hands were entwined, then in a resigned fashion stated. “I called you a puppy didn’t I?”

The grin on the girls face had Stiles groaning, falling backward to lay on the floor as his hand came up to lay across his face. “Just shoot me.”

The Pack chuckled at the poor teen’s plight, Erica patted him on the chest. “Don’t worry about it comic books, I’ll forgive you.”

Huffing at the taunt, Stiles retorted all while keeping his eyes covered. “I can change it you know.”

“Hmm?”

“Cotton candy isn’t that far off.” He grunted when Erica smacked him in the chest. “Ow.”

Isaac was laughing uproariously while Erica pouted, Boyd having reached out to pull her against himself. The two wolves were snuggling with one another, Erica glaring at Isaac with snide glances towards Stiles who was ignorant of them. Scott sent Derek a smirk, the older Alpha shook his head. At least things appeared to be calming down now, Stiles wasn’t afraid of them anymore or at least not to the degree to where he wanted to run from them. Erica was right, they could talk and touch him without him flinching, things were better. Now all they had to do was wait out the eclipse.

 

******** 

 

After such a horrible start to the afternoon, things settled. The pack managed to convince Stiles to stop hiding behind his arm and get up off the floor. Stiles sported a pretty good blush for a long while afterward, but he was saved from too much taunting. Minus Erica of course. 

Stiles tried to stay calm as the day progressed, but his previous freak-outs left him feeling wired instead of tired, the magic sand that Chris had used had long since worn off and despite not needing to run away from his friends, he was edgy. Stiles’ head tended to jerk around to watch them when they moved, but it wasn’t from fear, it was more hyper vigilance than anything. Stiles wanted to know what the other creatures were doing, the Bastili wanting to know if there was a threat nearby or if the pack was just settling in their den. Because that was what Stiles soon found the cat in his head calling the loft. At first, Stiles had been confused, but the longer he thought about it the more he realized that the stupid cat wasn’t all wrong. 

The wolves gathered here, they stayed the night here and when someone was hurt this is where they ran too. It was, in fact, a wolfs den. Granted it really belonged to Derek, but he was an Alpha so it made sense that his Beta’s would come to him. Another annoying thing was that whenever he tried to consider Derek as just another wolf or an Alpha the annoying cat voice started referring to Derek as dominant. Stiles didn’t have a clue what the hell that was supposed to mean, but he was doing all he could to try and ignore the cat altogether.

Shaking his head Stiles smiled when Erica handed him a plate, the food she had prepared prior to his freak out in the woods had been reheated and the pack was now sitting around each other on the floor. The lack of furniture causing them to have to sit on nothing but the concrete slabs that made up Derek’s loft. Stiles snorted when he realized something. The pack looked up to him, obviously curious as to what he found funny. 

Stiles smirked at them. “Sorry, just couldn’t help myself...You do realize that as far as a pack of wolves go your kinda sad.”

They frowned at him, obviously confused as to why he would say such a thing let alone what he meant. 

Stiles ignored the perplexed looks of his friends in favor of explaining. “I mean, what kind of a big bad wolf pack are you if you let a single cat force you to remove all the stuff you had in here? I single handily made a pack of wolves my bitch.”

They snorted at him now that they knew what he was on about. Scott rolled his eyes at his friend. “Ha ha, we are not your bitch-”

“you kinda are.”

Scowling at Stiles, Scott continued. “We removed everything because Derek didn’t want to have to replace all of his furniture and stuff if you decide to use things as a scratching post.”

Stiles smirked at the taunt before looking over at the Alpha ‘dominant’. He ignored the cat voice in his head and instead stated. “Admit it, you just didn’t want to chance to get cat hair everywhere didn’t you?”

Derek didn’t even bat an eye. “You caught me.”

Stiles laughed at that, looking over to the others he promised. “As soon as I have a handle on this shit, I am going to roll around on everything. Cat hairfy the place.”

Derek snorted at that, but the others laughed alongside Stiles. 

“better watch it man, he might ask me or Scott to bring a shaver from Deaton's and prevent that from happening.”

Stiles’ mouth dropped open at the threat, the two vet tech’s laughed at him. “You bastards...You are not shaving me.”

“they might.” Erica dryly commented. “And I for one think it would be amazing to watch.” Stiles glared at her, quickly pointing out. “Okay, we’ll just see about that. How close do you think they’ll get before I paralyze their ass.”

Erica grinned at him before glancing to the two wolves. “My bet’s on Stiles.”

The boys glared at her as Stiles laughed at Erica’s sudden change of heart. “Damn straight it is.”

Scott rolled his eyes at his friend. “Fine, we won't shave you.”

“we could always tag him.” Isaac supplied without any preamble.

Scott laughed at Isaac’s idea. Stiles scowled as he glanced from one to the other, not liking the sound of their little plot against him. “Tag me? Like what a bull? You are not piercing my ear man.”

Issac grinned ferally when his friend didn’t understand what he’d really meant. “Put a microchip in you, won't lose you then.”

Snorting Stiles quickly replied. “You're not doing that either. I hate needles as it is, I sure as hell ain't letting you near me with one that big.”

“its a gun actually.” Issac supplied helpfully. 

Stiles looked horrified by that, Scott laughed at his friends look. “He’s right, it's this weird piercing gun. Pierces the hide and-”

“Oh god, shut up, please. I don’t want to hear that.”

Scott smirked at Stiles who was waving his hand in a bid to shut him up. Scott and Isaac shared a look together before letting the subject drop. The pack finished their meal before Stiles helped clean up, he hoped that the activity would keep his mind off of the fact that the sun was setting. It didn’t take long though to clean and soon enough he had nothing more to do. 

Sighing as he sat against one of the wall pillars, Stiles muttered. “So...Do we know how soon I’m supposed to-” he waved his hand instead of finishing the sentence. 

The others shook their heads before Derek stated. “With wolves its normally as soon as the moon rises...With an eclipse, it could be when it starts or when it's at its zenith.”

Stiles sighed. “Wonderful...How long until it starts?”

Issac pulled out his phone and a moment later he said. “An hour.”

Stiles nodded his head and tilted it back to rest on the pillar, closing his eyes he sighed. “We're not going anywhere.”

Stiles smirked at that, he hadn’t figured they would but it was still nice to hear. “I would hope not, cause come morning time I would chase down your ass and make you suffer.”

Scott laughed at his comment. Stiles took a deep breath, as the minutes ticked by he noticed the voice, instinct in his head was growing louder once more. It was amping him up, a simple-minded belief that something would happen soon, that it was eager. Well, that was just wonderful, Stiles figured he was going to have a running commentary of the eclipse. Stiles did what he could to tell it to shut up, but whatever the Bastili was it ignored him. ‘Soon. Free. Free.’ The urge was growing and that left Stiles at an impasse on what to do. Sighing Stiles couldn’t help but ask. “Do you guys have a running commentary from your wolves?”

The pack shifted a bit, enough for Stiles to warrant opening his eyes. He saw the looks he was getting. “What?”

Scott coughed before mentioning. “We...Don’t normally talk about that...I mean we have that-the voice. The wolf side and it tells us things from time to time, but after you master your shift it kinda goes in the background...Mine was never really intrusive after Peter was gone.”

Issac nodded his head at that to back the Alpha up, Derek was the only one to comment on the subject after Scott. “Born wolves are a bit different. It stays with you, all your life. It guides you, were taught to listen to it. To trust it.”

Stiles nodded, quickly asking the Alpha. “So...I should trust it?”

Derek smirked at him before reminding the boy. “It thought we were a threat.”

“touche...Okay, so we're going with the ignore cat voice then.”

Derek shook his head when the teen immediately assumed that the voice of his inner animal was bad. “I’m not saying it can't be right Stiles...But right now, I’d consider whatever it has to say carefully. Don’t let it rule your actions.”

“so if it says jump off a cliff, maybe give it a thought or two.”

Derek snorted. “Maybe” he muttered. 

Stiles smirked at the irritated Alpha. ‘Dominant’ sighing Stiles muttered sourly. “It really hates you being an Alpha.”

Derek raised a brow at that, that was new. 

Stiles ignored the repetitive of ‘dominant’ as he addressed Derek. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Stiles frowned. “It’s just-it keeps calling you something different, it’s-it’s focused on one thing.”

“what’s it saying?” Issac asked curiously. 

Stiles glanced to him before shrugging.

“that he’s a dominant.”

That had the whole pack, including the Alpha in question frowning. Stiles hadn’t mentioned this before, but the teens disregarded that fact as they got the heart of it.

“well dominant is kinda like an Alpha right? I mean an Alpha is dominant by nature.”

Erica added. 

Stiles nodded his head. “I know, but when I phrased it like that it disagreed with me. It means something else to it, but it's not being very forthcoming with it. Anytime I try to tell it that Derek’s an Alpha or combat what it keeps repeating, it’s like it doesn’t hear me at all.”

Erica smirked in that way that Stiles knew meant he wouldn’t like what was about to come out of her mouth. Sure enough, the girl questioned. “Been thinking about Derek a lot huh?”

Stiles snorted at her. “Haha, I’ve been trying to figure this shit out.”

She made an unconvincing mmhmm noise. Glaring Stiles huffed and threw his head back, shutting his eyes once more. 

Erica chuckled at his response to her baiting, steadfastly ignoring the glare that Derek was sending her way. She knew better than to meet his gaze right now, she wasn’t just pushing Stiles’ buttons, she’d been pushing her Alpha’s. 

Ultimately Derek had to let it go, he couldn’t exactly bring anything up at the moment and Erica knew that. Probably the reason she felt so safe to say something like that with Stiles around, she knew he was cornered.  

As the hour went by, things changed. Silence had reigned for the better part of it, but the closer they got to when Stiles shift might occur the pack started to notice a change in Stiles. The teen grew tense, his body stiff as he struggled to keep his composure around them. When he suddenly got up and started pacing they watched but didn’t move to stop him. 

Issac glanced down at his phone and told the pack. “Two minutes.”

The rest of the pack nodded and turned their attention back to Stiles as he paced violently back and forth across his preferred space in front of the window. Stiles kept glancing out, no doubt searching for a sign of the eclipse that was about to change him. He kept sifting his hands through his hair in a nervous way, not quite sure what to do with himself as he walked in a rushed pace back and forth. 

It was as Stiles rounded to head back the other way that he felt it, he didn’t even have time to verbalize to the others that something was happening. Stiles just dropped onto his hands and knees in one might crash as if his strings had been cut. The pack jumped to their feet, wanting to come to his side, but Stiles shook his head and breathed out. Throwing out an arm to keep them away as he tried to assure them that everything was alright, even if it wasn’t.

“i-i-i’m fine...Stay-stay back.”

They heeded his wishes, though they anxiously shifted on their feet. A moment later Stiles groaned and his back arched a bit. The pack could only watch on in a mix between horror and amazement as Stiles shifted before their eyes. His skin rippling and literally shredding itself before reforming, the pattern of the Bastili that they had all seen in small patches on the boys form, spreading. Taking over his human skin and in some weird way, it looked like it was forcing his human skin below, devouring it. As that happened, his arms and legs changed in not only shape but form. They heard snapping and winced as they registered the breaking of the boy's bones, Stiles gave choked off cries and soon the human voice was changing into a yowl. Stiles’ hands and feet turned to clawed paws, his spine arched all the more, spreading and elongating into a tail. The clothing had long since begun tearing as his form shifted. His ears changing shape and shifting alongside his head into the ears like a lion. His face snapped a few times, the facial bones changing, pushing outward before resolidifying into the maw of a great cat, lengthened canine’s sprouted down the creature's mouth on either side, reminiscent of a sabre tooth cat. The loud yowl slowly tapered off as the change completed itself. Where once Stiles human form had been, now stood a creature that none of them had ever seen before. The picture in the book did it no justice. 

 


	20. Making friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles transformation into the Bastili is complete, leaving the pack to ascertain whether or not Stiles is the one they're dealing with or if it's just a beast that is prowling around the loft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is folks, the chapter you've been eagerly awaiting. Stiles transformation is complete and now we get to see a good look at just what the Bastili is and how it's going to interact with the pack. Thank you to all of you who've been writing comments, I love to hear from you all. Enjoy the chapter!

The feline in front of them was easily the size of a lion, the face was structured in the same manner that all felines had. The only distinct difference from regular large breed cats being the large teeth on either side of its maw. The saber-like fangs were long enough to brush the bottom of its bottom jaw. At the top of its head, just beyond its ears was the start of a few quills. They weren’t long or densely grouped together, but enough to protect the back of its throat. Any predator trying to go there would find themselves paralyzed before they could do much damage. Its spine was more pronounced than most creatures, not boney just protruded in a way that showed the density of its bone structure that lay beneath the thick hide. 

Down the length of its spine were more small quills, though they appeared to be more hair-like than actual quill as anyone had initially presumed. Most likely a type of camouflage as there was no doubt that they quills would pack a punch regardless of how they first appeared. They grew longer the further down the cat’s spine where its back hips where the majority of its real quills started, they tapered and trailed down the length of its tail, ending in a flourish of hair and quill which were intermixed into a weapon that was sure to put anything attacking the creature to shame. The quills that made up the ball of its tail varying in size, making it look like a fierce weapon as it should.

Its long legs were of a typical large breed cat, strong and stable, but able to spring the creature forward in a burst of strength just as the creatures long legs helped it to climb. The claws on its paws seemed to back that up, the wicked curved blades were ready to tear into meat or any other substance it desired. 

As ferocious as the beast was, it was the creatures patterning which caused the most reaction. Sure the Bastili was intimidating, but the beauty that beguiled it’s impressive form was astounding. The mottled patterning across its coat was stunning but also made it known that there was no hope of Stiles blending into the woods around beacon hills. The Bastili wasn’t designed for the terrain, but regardless of his ability or inability to blend in, he was still a sight to see.  The Bastili’s sandy coat was only displaced by the dark patterning of the creature’s mottling, the black markings that made up of open and closed bands that trailed down the length of the cat, stripes of the same coloring made up other shallower parts of the feline's body. Smaller markings trailing up and down its legs while the majority of the large bands were seen along its torso.

A dark mane disrupted the line of its neck and down the spine alongside the few quills the Bastili had. The hair of the mane was darker still than the mottling of its coat, the fur hanging down from its neck onto its shoulders, cresting down towards its chest. As beautiful as Stiles’ new form was, it was equally as deadly. That was clear to see just looking at the powerful animal. 

Just as they had finished staring blindly at the creatures transformation did they wait to see what it would do. It stretched itself, its claws springing out to show their full wicked length. The claws tapping onto the floor, not unlike the sounds of a blade being unsheathed from its sheath. The creature's mouth parting in a dramatic yawn, showing the sharp teeth inside as well as showcasing its wicked fangs that protruded out. Once it had gathered itself and shook itself off did the pack try to see how much of Stiles was in control. 

Scott swallowed before saying. “Stiles, you with us buddy?”

The cats head twisted around and it hissed, all at once the previously dormant quills spiked not unlike a house cat’s fur when pissed off. It was easy to tell exactly how the Bastili felt by their presence with such a telling feature.

Scott held up his hands. “It's okay, you're fine man.”

The cat growled at them, hunching down.

“Is he gonna pounce?” Issac worried aloud. 

The others didn’t dare take their eyes off of the Bastili to try and answer the teen, none of them were truly sure what the cat had in mind now that its focus was on them.

“Maybe.” Erica muttered softly as if she didn’t wish to speak in case the cat turned its sights directly to her from where it was glaring at Scott.

The cat grumbled at them, glancing at them all a moment before its gaze settled once more on Scott. As if it was waiting to see what the wolf would do or whether or not it could surprise them all.

Scott swallowed before trying yet again to see if his friend was aware of what was going on. “Hey, Stiles...Can you- I don’t know roll over if you recognize us?”

The others wanted to roll their eyes at the stupid request, but the cat did nothing of the sort. It hissed at Scott when the boy spoke again.

“Don’t think he likes your voice.”

Scott snorted at Isaac, only to jerk back when the cat lunged a bit, swiping its clawed paw at him in warning. They were still far enough away that it was nothing more than that. A threat. Scott nodded. “Okay...You don’t like new noises. We won't do that again.”

The cat hissed, the noise slowly turning into a deep growling rumble reminiscent of a deep and angry yowl most cats did when seriously pissed off. By the size and strength of him, none of the pack wanted to know how close to a reaction he’d have.

“What do we do now?” Erica questioned, she flinched when the cat turned its head towards her and hissed.

“Shutting up would be good.” Issac quipped. 

The cat growled at him in turn, its head following whoever was making noise. The pack was shocked then when Derek took a step forward and with the full authority of his Alpha voice called out.

“Stiles! Stop.”

The Beta’s winced at the man’s Alpha power radiating in the tone, wanting nothing more than to submit regardless that the order wasn’t directed at them. The Bastili, however, didn’t share their sentiments, cat’s hackles rose further as it hunkered down. The feline backed up a hair all while hissing at the Alpha, the quills along its form seemingly quivering.

“Don’t think he likes that dude.” Scott said as they watched the quills quiver. 

Derek scowled at the creature, ignoring Scott’s comment as he tried to get Stiles to focus. “Stop, look at us. You know us, think.”

The cat hissed again, its tail lashing back and forth in agitation, his maw open to bare it’s lethal fangs at the Alpha. Derek continued to ignore the cat’s warnings, talking to Stiles as he took a step forward. “Sti-”

In an instant the cat lunged for the Alpha, Derek quickly pulled back, dodging the attack by inches. The cat spun around and growled, its tail lashing back and forth as its quills quivered in warning.

“He get you?” Scott called nervously.

“No.” Derek said monotonously, a frown crossing his brow at the Bastili’s attempts to attack him. The Alpha stared at the cat that had attempted to down him, trying to find some way to reach the teen that he knew had to be there. The Bastili had recognized them while Stiles had still been human, at least on some level though he reasoned that might have been more because of the sand than the cat’s willingness to adapt to them.  Still, there had to be a way to get it to recognize them now, to get Stiles back in control of himself. Never taking his eyes off of the creature as it seemed to be holding an unknown grudge against him, Derek called out. “Boyd, go get the sand...Maybe it will calm him down enough for us to reason with him.”

The man nodded, the second he moved the Bastili tensed and swiveled to give the Beta its full attention. Boyd paused as the creature hissed at him, unsure whether or not he should continue.

“You’re fine, go.”

Not daring to question Derek, Boyd walked over to the kitchen countertop and picked up the jar of blue sand. He got the lid off and poured some in his hand. Refastening the cap before he put the fragile jar down and headed back towards the rest of the pack.

“Do I throw it? I don’t think I can get close enough otherwise.”

None of them thought they’d get close, not with how the Bastili was acting. It was because of this that Derek met the questioning gaze of his Beta.

“Throwing it sounds like our best bet right now, you can’t reach him without him attacking.”

Nodding Boyd launched the powder into the air, they watched it shimmer as it drifted down onto the concrete. The Bastili jerked back and growled at the offending sand when nothing happened the cat watched them warily a moment.

The pack was on edge, waiting to see if the Bastili would go to investigate the sand or not. It was still giving off a deep grumble as it glanced around at them all. After assuring itself that none of the wolves had moved it tentatively stepped closer to the edge of the sesbania that had fallen across the concrete. Edging closer and closer while watching the wolves warily, finally, once it was close enough the cat sniffed at the sand. Pulling back in an instant and snorting to clear its nose when the offending substance clung to it. The Bastili wiped furiously with its paw to clear the offending sand. The pack watched as the cat twisted about, batting at itself.

“Is he okay?” Issac called out, Stiles hadn’t reacted like this earlier.

The pack didn’t have an answer for that, so they watched on as the cat continued to stumble back. Running into a pillar as it struggled to clear its nose. When it bumped into the solid pillar its yowled and lashed out. The packs’ eyes widened as the claws tore into the pillar as if it was butter. Chips of the stone skittering across the floor.

“Holy shit!” Scott’s mouth fell open in surprise at the damage the Bastili had just caused inadvertently.

The Bastili growled and rumbled as it fought to clear its senses, but then all at once, it seemed the sand did something. It teetered a bit, stumbling on its legs like it was suddenly drunk before it gave a warbling yowl and fell over. The pack lurched forward, wanting to go to their friend's side, but stopped. Stiles didn’t know them and it would be foolish to try and get near the creature. The Bastili huffed, breathing deeply as it tried to right itself. It didn’t work, it continued to fall over until it seemingly gave up. Its tail flickering at just the tip. As if it was too much work to move the rest of it. The pack waited anxiously a few minutes to be sure, but when the Bastili did nothing but pant as it lay on the floor did they tentatively move from where they’d been frozen since it all began.

Glancing to the others Isaac asked. “Is that normal?”

Scott shrugged. “I guess...I mean Chris said it couldn’t hurt him and Deaton said it would mellow him out.”

“That’s a bit more than mellow.” Erica chimed in. “That’s almost coma level of mellow.” She carefully skirted around the feline beside Boyd getting a good look at it, keeping a great distance between themselves and the cat despite it being downed. 

Derek shook his head and took a step forward, informing the pack as he did so. “He can move...He’s just too tired to do so.”

They watched as Derek slowly bit by bit approached the downed cat. It growled, but it cut off pretty fast as it went quiet, the effort to make noise apparently too much. Derek smirked as he saw the green eyes focus on him. Its maw lifting in a snarl, before falling back down.

“We’re not going to hurt you Stiles.”

The cat hissed tiredly at him before it stopped abruptly, its tongue coming out to lick its mouth and nose. Derek glanced towards Scott briefly before focusing back on the Bastili.

“I’m going to get closer if he does manage to paralyze me. Move me.”

Scott snorted at the lame order. “No, I’m gonna let him chew on your dumb ass. Do you realize how stupid this is? He’s pissed to hell and back Derek.” The younger Alpha berated the older man, it was clear Stiles didn’t recognize them and he was definitely a threat now.

The Alpha shook his head. “And until we show him otherwise he’s going to consider us a threat.”

“Have you seen those claws? Those teeth? Did you blink and miss what he did to that pillar?!”

Scott jerked his hand over towards the marred surface. 

Derek sent an annoyed look towards the raving teen, he knew why Scott was reacting this way but it wasn’t very helpful towards their situation. “I did not miss that, but he’s not moving much now. So while he’s too tired I’m going to try and build some trust, so shut up and guard my back.” He grit out. 

Scott huffed and threw his hands over his chest, but before he could say anything more about the man’s stupid plan or how he was supposed to drag his paralyzed body when this failed he was interrupted.

“I got you.” Boyd called out, moving closer to Derek to help the Alpha. 

Derek nodded to the Beta before shifting closer to the Bastili. It gave a grumbled growl as Derek came closer, its maw trying to lift, but failing. Smirking Derek knelt down when there was a small gap still between them, hopefully, enough of one for him to get away if he needed to. “Stiles, that’s enough.”

The cat gave a weary hiss, Derek ignored it and reached out a hand towards it.

“He’s going to bite your fucking hand off Derek.”

The Alpha ignored the petulant tone of Scott, he knew the younger Alpha was just feeling insecure with Stiles attitude towards them. When his hand was close enough Derek smirked. The cat was growling, but the gentle puffs of breath told him it was scenting him at the same time. The growling abruptly stopped, the green eyes staring up at him. Pushing forward, Derek let his fingers brush the cat’s fur. Its maw shifted as if it was going to bare its teeth again, but it never did as it allowed Derek's fingers trail up the bridge of its nose. Derek trailed his fingers up, inwardly surprised that he was getting away with this, once his fingers came to rest in the middle of the cat’s bridge did he scratch it a bit in some hope to mollify the beast. “See. I’m not a threat.”

The cat hissed a bit at him, but let him continue to scratch its fur. When he laid his fingers flat on the creatures head he smirked. “Think Stiles...You know me. Remember? You call me that stupid nickname, sourwolf.”

No sooner than had he finished saying Stiles’ annoying nickname for him than did the cat lunge. The pack cried out as Derek was bowled over, the cat taking the Alpha down onto his back. Boyd lunged forward to try and wrangle the Bastili away from Derek, but he saw Derek’s hand come up, halting him.

“Derek?”

The Alpha was staring into bright green eyes, angry bright green eyes. The cat’s from was quivering as it fought to hold itself upright, the powder weakening its form too much for it to fight for long. Its fangs were near his throat, close enough that it could easily tear into him before Boyd did anything.

“Its okay Stiles.” Derek tried to reassure the Bastili, treating it as if the teen was still in control even though he clearly wasn’t.

The cat’s breath was ghosting his face as it breathed against him, the cat’s breath was warm, but held no scent to it. Daring to be so bold, Derek lifted his hand back up and scratched at the creature's neck, below its dangerous fangs. There were no quills on its underbelly or the underside of its neck so he was relatively safe in doing this. So long as it didn’t decide it had, had enough that is. 

The cat growled when Dereks’ fingers touched it, its legs quivering. If it fell there was a good chance he would be impaled by its lengthened canines. The Alpha tried not to dwell on that as he focused solely on earning some form of trust from the creature. The Bastili was the one who was calling the shots right now and surprisingly it grew bored of him. The Bastili huffed a breath against him before it pulled back on tired limbs and hissed at Boyd. The Beta took a step back, this seemed to pacify the cat some cause it stopped hissing and moved off of Derek. Its legs folding as it let itself slide back onto the floor. Derek sat up on his elbows staring into the green eyes looking at him.

“Do you know me?”

The cat growled at him tiredly as its head collapsed back onto its front paws. Derek frowned at the cat’s actions. He had mistakenly figured that Stiles had regained some measure of control, but if Stiles didn’t recognize him if the Bastili didn’t. Why hadn’t it attacked, really attacked him? Sighing Derek sat up more and looked at the creature only a few inches from his own leg, it was staring at him, watching.

“Uh, maybe we should have given you the charm thing...You could have done something with it.”

Derek glanced towards Scott. “Unless I forced it down his throat he’s not going to hold it Scott.”

The Alpha glared at him and Derek glared back.

Sensing where all the testosterone was going Erica asked. “So what now? He didn’t tear out your throat.”

Derek nodded as he tore his heated gaze away from Scott to look at the Bastili, the tired creature was glaring at him from where its head rested on its paws. 

“Should we put more dust around him? How long does that stuff work when he’s like this?” Issac’s questions were valid, but Derek didn’t think them dosing the creature over and over again was going to help their case as far as getting it to trust them. Though once it did wear off they would be back at square one. Sighing Derek replied. “We watch him, he starts to get uppity and we throw some in his face just like Chris said.”

Issac snorted at that. “Yeah, he’ll love that.”

Derek’s lips twitched at the boy's dry response, truthfully he hoped it didn’t come to that. The creature was at least laying somewhat passively next to him. It was because of this that Derek chose to continue with where he left off, reaching out a hand he wasn’t surprised by the growl being offered up as his hand drew near it. The Bastili allowed his touch though, Derek gently drew his fingers through its fur, careful to avoid any quills that might lurk in the deeper fur. Derek smirked when he scratched behind one of its ears and it twitched. Its piercing green eyes continued to watch his every move though.

It was waiting for one wrong move, one ounce of threatening behavior and then it would pounce. He knew that the second time he wouldn’t be getting away unscathed. The first having been a warning, the cat trying to assert its dominance over him in some manner. He’d had no choice but to allow it, of course, the cat having the upper hand at that moment. Still, Derek knew he’d have to reassert himself as an Alpha in the Bastili’s eyes sooner rather than later, but for now, he was just focused on getting it to trust him.

“So should we throw more sand at him? I mean he’s going to get up sometime soon right?” 

“Probably not that soon.”

The pack glanced around to each other, each weighing in on the current debate of what to do with Stiles.

Derek didn’t bother looking at the pack as he explained. “Right now, he’s watching everything I do. One wrong move and he’ll go for my throat, he’s waiting me out, waiting for a chance to attack.” Derek broke eye contact with the Bastili to meet Scott’s gaze in particular. “If we do something like that to him again, he’ll go for us. He’s pissed at falling for it the first time, we won’t get a second shot. He’ll just attack.”

The pack shifted nervously, none of them wanted the Bastili to attack Derek, least of all because come morning they would have to explain everything Stiles if he didn’t remember anything.

“So what are you going to do then?” Scott asked in a slightly irritated tone.

Derek ignored the boy's tone of voice, he knew it was brought on by nerves. He wasn’t really trying to challenge him. It still rankled him, but Derek held off putting him back in his place.

“I’m going to sit here and pet him.”

“Seriously?” Came the incredulous response.

Derek hmm’d at that as he stared intently into the green eyes of the Bastili which had shifted thus gaining his attention. The cat was content laying there, glaring at him in some capacity and allowing him to pet it. 

Derek turned to look when he heard Scott’s shocked voice ask. “What are you doing?”

Derek raised a brow when he saw Isaac sitting once more on the floor. 

Issac glanced to Derek and shrugged. “We're not a threat if were the same height or smaller if we don’t move.”

Derek smirked at the clever Beta. “No, you’re not a threat. You might become prey though.”

Issac smirked at the Alpha’s warning, he could tell that Derek wasn’t trying to scare him off so much as prepare him in case Stiles acted out. “He didn’t bite a hole into you so I think I’m okay.”

Derek shook his head and looked back at the Bastili which was still allowing him to rub its head. Scott frowned down at Isaac before giving a huff and joining the boy, Erica and Boyd soon followed. The Bastili’s hackles rose a bit when it saw Boyd move, but the growling and threatening gesture subsided when it saw that the large form was condensing itself. 

Derek smiled at the creature. “See, we’re not a threat.”

It grumbled at him as it stared at Boyd and that was how the pack ended up sitting in the middle of the loft, barely moving. Only shifting when their limbs absolutely needed them too. The Bastili was calmer now though, it’s head would lift occasionally to glance at them all while Derek’s fingers still trailing its coat. The trembling of its body getting weaker over time, the powder no doubt wearing off as the Bastili’s natural healing kicked into gear to dissolve the foreign agent in its bloodstream. This was proven to be true when forty five minutes later the cat lumbered to its feet, throwing off Derek’s hand as it rose and shook itself out. Derek stayed still as it righted itself, its legs stumbling a bit until it caught itself. Back to its full height, the cat looked at him, it lifted its maw, showing off its impressive teeth.

“Yes, very impressive.” Derek dryly said all while staring the creature down. He hadn’t acted out the entire time Derek had been petting him, if he’d managed to regain his strength this much then there was no reason why he shouldn’t have already taken a swing at him. Derek called his bluff.

The pack snickered, the Bastili glanced at them all and growled. Shaking his head Derek took the chance and patted its neck. Its head whipped around and it roared in his face. Derek winced at the loud noise but didn’t do anything else. Though his wolf was begging him to roar back, to put the insolent creature in its place. Once the Bastili had finished its little display, the cat stared at him, looking once more for something. It must have found what it was looking for because a moment later it came forward, the pack tensed, prepared for an attack. The Bastili rubbed its head against the man’s shoulder as it circled him. Derek twisted his head about to follow it as it rounded him when it was done rubbing all the way around him it came to a halt in front of him.

“You okay?” Scott asked while never taking his eyes off of his best friends new form.

It went without saying that they’d feared that Stiles may have paralyzed the man, that Derek would fall over any minute from the creatures quills that had no doubt stuck him. 

Derek shook his head, quickly assuring them all. “I’m fine. He didn’t attack me...The quills compressed. I could feel them, but none even scraped me.”

Scott smirked. “So he does have control over them.”

“He will.” Derek replied reminding Scott and the pack that Stiles wasn’t presently the one in control. Scott nodded his head and looked over to the cat. It was still staring at Derek, the Alpha was likewise staring back at it.

“Uh, does he even blink?”

Issac asked upon noticing the awkward staring contest going on.

Derek smirked. “He does...Occasionally.”

“And the staring thing?”

“Not so different from wolves, they stare down prey until it runs.”

Issac glanced between the two of them after Derek’s flippant response, as if the Alpha didn’t put himself into the category of prey in that scenario. “So he’s waiting for you to run.”

“Most likely. He’s trying to figure out my weakness, to assert his dominance over me. He’s waiting for me to submit.”

Issac snorted only to wince when the cat shifted its head to hiss at him, it didn’t take long for it to lose interest in him. Turning back to his silent war with Derek as Isaac muttered. “Well, you’re not going too.”

“No, but he doesn’t know that.”

Nodding his head Isaac put his face in his hand and watched the staring contest as there was nothing else to do.

“What happens if you look away? I mean, he looked at Isaac so doesn’t that mean he lost?”

Erica asked suddenly. 

“He could attack, see it as a sign of weakness...He probably doesn’t see him looking away as any sign of submission.” Derek commented idly. “In his mind, he’s in charge.”

She hmm’d at that.

“Any particular way to avoid all this maiming?”

Smirking Derek said. “Stare him down until he stops.”

Scott sighed, quickly telling the Betas. “Derek will just hold eye contact until he realizes that Derek is the Alpha and hopefully things will settle down.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Doesn’t what? Settle down?”

Erica nodded her head at Scott. “If he doesn’t accept Derek as the Alpha, then what?”

“Then we’ll fight.” Came the firm yet simple reply from Derek. 

Erica glanced towards the Bastili, she willed it to just give in. For Stiles to understand and stop this before it got ugly, of course, by the looks of it Stiles wasn’t even aware of what was going on.  

Derek continued to stare into the green eyes, the cat was silent and showed no signs of being a threat. He knew better of course, it was lying in wait. Ready to pounce in the second he showed weakness to it, willing to take a chance to end the little stalemate they were in Derek flared his eyes. Showing the Alpha red that beguiled the power in his own form, the cat hissed at once baring its fangs.

“Derek?”

Derek didn’t reply to his concerned pack, instead, he let out a subvocal growl. The pack watched warily as the battle of the wills started because of whatever Derek had done to instigate the real fight between the two of them. The cat growled low in its throat to match him, Derek let his teeth change and bared them at the cat. When the pack expected the Bastili to do the same or to just lunge and attack, it did the opposite, it hunkered down and gave a grumbling yowl while it stared up at Derek. Derek continued to bare his teeth at it, letting out a roar of his own until the cat slowly rolled over exposing its belly. Its paws spread to show its docility to the Alpha, Derek stopped roaring and retracted his fangs the moment that the Bastili submitted to him.

“I’m the Alpha now.”

Derek lets his eyes return to normal before looking at the rest of the pack with a smile, it was a small victory but a victory none the less. It was as his gaze landed on Scott that Derek realized they had one thing that needed to be settled, fast. He gave Scott a look before stating. “He won't understand if-”

The boy waved his hand at him already well ahead of the conversation. “I know I know..Our pack is fucked up there’s two Alpha’s blah blah blah.”

Derek smirked at Scott's rendition of the issue they’d had when dealing with outsiders, having two Alpha’s wasn’t always the easiest when dealing with other wolves or worse other supernaturals. The others chuckled at Scott’s response to Derek’s apparent worry of Stiles being confused.

Scott smirked as he watched the Bastili roll back over. “Well, your king of the jungle now.”

Derek snorted before reminding the teen. “They’re from Egypt.”

Scott shrugged. “Fine, you’re pharaoh.”

Rolling his eyes Derek looked back at the Bastili and reached out. It didn’t hiss this time, letting Derek pet it as he pleased.

“So how do you introduce us then?” Issac said in a giddy tone, the childlike awe of the beast before them earning him simultaneous eye rolls from the rest of the pack. 

Derek shook his head. “Not sure...Cats are different than wolves as far as social interactions. Submission is one thing, turning a pack into a pride...That’s another.” Derek frowned as he thought about that, he’d never really heard of any kind of feline shifter before and even if he had, Derek wasn’t sure how wolves and one would interact. 

Issac nodded his head though his eyes never trailed off of Stiles’ new form. “Well, were your Beta’s and wolf or not, pride’s have a hierarchy. So it's just a matter of finding a way to introduce us properly.”

“We could offer him food I suppose?” Erica said skeptically as she eyed the Bastili cautiously, not quite trusting its newfound docility.

Scott snorted. “You can't bribe him, Erica, I don’t think Bastili’s eat curly fries.”

She huffed as she glared back at Scott quickly throwing out a challenged. “What's your brilliant idea then?”

Scott glared at her, flashed his eyes until she looked away to show her submission. Scott could take a lot of things, but right now his stress was a little high to be taking lip from her.

“I don’t know.” The teen grit out as he turned away from Erica to look at the Bastili that was somehow also his best friend.

“Uh...Well lions rub on each other.”

The pack looked over to Isaac to see him reading something on his phone. Scott snorted.

“Wikipedia is not going to give us an answer Isaac. He is very clearly not a lion.”

Issac looked up and grinned at the Alpha. “Well duh, but he is a feline. A cat is a cat essentially.”

“So you want what? For Derek to rub on you to introduce you?”

Issac made a face at that, that was going a bit far. Sure they scented each other but rolling on each other...No.

Scott smirked at how uncomfortable the teen was, going so far to add. “Cause cats also piss on things.”

Derek glared at Scott though the boy didn’t see it as he was too busy being glared at by Isaac. Rolling her eyes at all the male posturing going on around her Erica piped up. “Cats also bathe each other with their tongues, doesn’t mean Derek’s going to give Isaac a tongue bath Scott. He’s just stating that there are some social behaviors that aren’t too far fetched for us to try.”

Scott shrugged, his earlier merriment of torturing Isaac squashed by logic interceding into the conversation. “Stiles would die laughing watching any of those, just so you know.”

Issac sighed.“You’re such an ass sometimes.”

Scott smirked at him, not in the least bothered by the boy cursing at him. Derek stayed silent as he watched the pack argue back and forth. He would glance back to the Bastili that he was petting to make sure it was at least calm, it never did much now that he’d established himself as the Alpha. It was staring at him, waiting once more. Shaking his head he muttered sourly at the cat. “ It’d be nice if your too big of a brain caught up to this shit.”

The others stilled at that, they all knew that if Stiles was on board they would have nothing to worry about. The Alpha’s remark made them smile though. 

“Well, we need to do something, sitting on this floor is getting uncomfortable and I have this sneaky suspicion that moving would get me threatened.” Scott retorted to all of them as his eyes landed on the Bastili that he was not so subtly mentioning.

Derek glanced over to Scott. “Fine, might as well try.”

Scott blinked at the man’s simple response. Derek then rolled to his feet, the Bastili following him to its own four legs. Standing beside him, watching him. Smirking Derek walked over towards the window, giving some much-needed space between him, the Bastili, and the rest of the pack. The Bastili glanced at all of them before grumbling and trotting after Derek, as if it was highly annoyed to have to deal with this. 

Issac snickered at the cat’s pouting but quickly piped up. “He’s like a puppy.”

Derek smirked as he looked down at the Bastili that was sitting in front of him, the cat’s bright eyes staring at him as if waiting for him to say or do something. Looking back up to the pack Derek called with an air of taunt to his voice. “Well, get up then Scott, you wanted to be able to move. Better test this one at a time.”

Sighing Scott muttered something about always being the guinea pig, but did as asked and got up. The reaction from the Bastili to his sudden movement was instantaneous, the previously docile cat twisted sharply from where it was seated before Derek. It’s growl vicious as it took in the apparent threat. Scott froze just as he got to his feet, the cat hissing at him.

“No.” Derek called out, figuring that it was worth a shot to try and curb the cat’s aggression towards the pack verbally. If Stiles’ was supposed to be one of his Beta’s he’d treat him like one. Surprisingly, it worked. The cats head looked back at him, staring intently a moment as Derek shook his head. “No.” The Alpha reiterated to the curious animal.

It grumbled but didn’t do much more as it glanced over once more to stare at Scott. The Bastili’s lip came up to show its fangs, but not a sound came from it.

Scott smirked at the not so subtle threat, he had to hand it to it, it was technically listening to Derek’s order. Never taking his eyes off of the imposing beast, Scott mentioned off handily. “I think you're supposed to spray cats with water or something.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”

Scott chuckled at the annoyed Alpha’s retort, twisting just a hair to look at Isaac. The Beta had been vibrating with energy since things had started to go their way with the Bastili, Scott motioned for Isaac to stand. The blonde was all too eager to comply, climbing to his feet in no time and halting just as fast. The Bastili’s gaze went from Scott to the other boy, its eyes darting between the two figures a moment before settling on Isaac. The same deep rumbling growl had sparked as the two teens stood there, the cat’s vibrant eyes burying into Isaac as it worked up to a full growl.

Derek didn’t waste any time in correcting the Bastili’s hostile behavior. “No.”

Just as before the cat silenced itself, though it looked not too happy to do so. 

Issac smirked. “That’s’ pretty cool.” The blonde met Derek’s gaze and with an impish grin stated. “Hey, you can say that he finally listened to you.”

Derek glared at the teen, that wasn’t amusing. Turning his attention to one of the other members of the pack, Derek motioned for Erica to get up. He’d deal with Isaac’s humor later.

Erica rolled her eyes as she got up, this time the cat twisted to look at Derek as if it was waiting to be given permission to be hostile or not. Derek although surprised by the interaction was quick to state a solid. “No.”

The cat grumbled up at him as if it was upset that the man had dampened its fun but turned and watched silently as she finished getting to her feet. It was what the Bastili did upon Boyd getting up that truly surprised them all. He didn’t turn to see what Derek wanted, the cat ignored the other Beta instead choosing to lay down at Derek’s feet.

“Well then...Guess he doesn’t mind us much anymore.”

Derek smirked down at the Bastili, if you didn’t know better you might actually think he was a trained cat. Derek had a feeling he was just playing along because he was bored, the Bastili knew not to test Derek, but the rest of the pack were another matter.  “Not right now anyways...” Then as if thinking better of it, motioned to Scott. “Scott come over here.”

Rolling his eyes, the Alpha walked towards Derek already knowing where this particular action was heading. The cat’s head perked up at the new movement in the loft, its eyes landing on Scott in an instant. It’s hackles raised, the quills along its body standing on end as it bared its teeth, but didn’t issue a sound.

Scott paused and took in the imposing sight of his best friends form, he glared at Derek. “So he’s going to silently attack me, that’s good, glad we're making progress here.” Scott muttered sourly with a tinge of apprehension. 

Snorting at the teen's dramatics Derek knelt down and petted the Bastili’s head. “Shh. It's alright.”

The cat slowly lowered its maw, hiding its fangs once more. Its hackles were still flared, though they had gone down some upon Derek touching it. Looking up to Scott, Derek gave him a look.

Rolling his eyes the Alpha replied. “Yeah, you’re the cat whisperer.”

The pack chuckled behind Scott. Glaring at the teen who wasn’t getting it Derek said. “Kneel down stupid.”

Sighing, Scott slowly lowered himself down, the cat glared at him. Scott held it’s gaze a moment before looking at Derek. “He’s giving me the death glare Derek, I can feel him hating me right now.”

Derek chuckled, he was sure that if Stiles was in control the boy would do the same thing just to freak out his friend. Regardless, Derek chose to point out. “He doesn’t hate you, Scott, he’s just...Wary.”

“Mmhmm...Nope pretty sure that’s wish you were dead glare.”

Shaking his head Derek petted the Bastili’s head once more, ignoring any other complaints Scott might have for right now in exchange for settling the Bastili. “He’s pack...He’s a friend.”

The cat’s ears flickered as it listened to what Derek had to say, but continued to glare at Scott as if it was challenging the other Alpha to make the wrong move. 

Scott waited to see what Stiles would do, he knew Stiles wasn’t the one really in control at the moment, but thinking of the cat as anything but Stiles made him wonder if he’d get his friend back. So Scott just tried to focus on the fact that Stiles would find a way to ground himself soon enough and everything would be good. The cat was obviously looking for something and as much as Scott wished to just look up to Derek for a clue on what to do, his inner Alpha refused to back down now that it was giving him the same staring contest that it had Derek. So he stared and felt all the more stupid for it. 

The Bastili growled when Scott refused to look away, the sound cutting off a moment later when Derek told it ‘no’ again. Sighing at the stalemate they were at, the Alpha chose to test the waters and hope for the best. Scott lifted a hand and extended it out towards the cat, it bared its teeth at him but lowered its face to sniff at the offered appendage. Its green eyes never leaving his own, it pulled back a moment later with a chuff that reminded him of a tiger. The look of annoyance on the beasts face made him wonder if he hadn’t smelled good to it or if it was just displeased for being told no by Derek.

Smirking he couldn’t help but ask. “How many cats are you man? First a lion, now a tiger?”

The Bastili ignored him as it rose suddenly, startling both Scott and Derek. They both relaxed when it didn’t attack Scott, but rather chose to circle Derek again, rubbing against him. Derek sighed at the behavior but tolerated it. When the cat came back around it startled them both by crossing the small gap and rubbing against Scott, catching the boy off guard. Scott stumbled back to his heels and glared after the cat when it let out a series of chitters.

“Is he laughing at you?” Erica's incredulous voice asked.

“Yes, he is.” Issac laughed out loud after telling his friend.“And that is a sound that another species of cats make...Maybe they all branched from this kind genetically?”

Scott snorted at Isaac’s ramblings and instead righted himself, the Bastili had finished its circle around him and gone back to Derek. 

Glaring at his friend a moment, he looked up to Derek. “He did that on purpose.”

Derek smirked. “Sure.”

Glaring at the Alpha a moment more despite it not getting him anything Scott glanced over his shoulder and called out. “Come on nature boy, let's see how you fare.”

Issac was grinning as he walked over. The Bastili grumbled at the newcomer but didn’t do much more so Derek left it alone. Once Isaac was knelt down did Derek pat the Bastili’s head.

“He’s pack, he’s a friend.”

The cat’s ears flickered as it listened to Derek, its eyes never leaving the teen that had approached and knelt down a few feet in front of it. The Bastili stared at Isaac a moment, gauging the intruder even as the Alpha continued to pet it. None of them were prepared for it deciding to move forward away from Derek to come inspect Isaac, the teen froze as the cat walked around him. Sniffing at his arm, piercing green eyes stared straight into Isaacs’ own. The cat’s lip lifted a bit, but it huffed upon Derek calling out. “No.”

Isaac gave the beast a wary smile. “It’s okay Stiles.” He assured the cat, never moving from where he was just in case it took it as a threat.

The Bastili ignored the boy's words as it came forward to sniff at him again, tearing away to prowl around the boy once more as if it couldn’t settle on what to do with the youth. Isaac looked towards Derek, silently asking for some kind of clue. Derek didn’t have any to give the boy so he shook his head, sighing Isaac allowed the Bastili to do what it wanted in hopes that it might accept him sooner or later.

The Bastili had made a couple of laps around the teen, pausing periodically to sniff at him and meet his eyes before tearing away to start it all over again.

“Well, at least he’s not growling.” Erica chimed in from where she and Boyd were watching the interaction.

“I’d almost wish he was.” Isaac announced. “At least then I’d know how he felt.”

Scott sighed. “Trust me, it doesn’t make it better.”

Isaac huffed, giving the Alpha a putout look. “Well, I don’t know what else to do.” He raised his voice a bit. “All he does is sniff and glare at me and I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean other than him thinking I need a shower.”

The others laughed at the Beta’s plight, they winced when the Bastili growled at the noise. Derek was quick to call the cat back into order. “No.” He stared the beast down when it turned to look at him. “You’re fine, no one’s hurting you.”

The cat grumbled, obviously not alright with being told that it couldn’t hiss or growl at them. It turned sharply to continue with its movements around Isaac, pausing when the boy shifted to lay his head on his knees. The cat tilted its head, gaining the pack's attention. Isaac smiled back at it even though he wasn’t sure what the cat found intriguing in his present position. The teen was forced to hold absolutely still when the cat got into his face, literally. Taking short shallow breaths, Isaac waited to see what the cat that was now breathing on him would do.

“Isaac?” Derek called cautiously, waiting to know if the Beta was alright with how things were going or if he needed to pull Stiles back.

The Beta hummed as if to say ‘what.’

“You okay?” Scott filled in for Derek.

Taking a shallow breath and a bigger chance Isaac answered. “We’re good.”

“If you’re sure.”

Isaac smirked at the trepidation in Scott’s voice, he could totally understand how this must look to the others but Stiles wasn’t doing anything to him. Well, other than encroach on his personal space, like a lot. The Bastili’s breath was ghosting his face, he could even feel a few of its whiskers when it shifted about. The teen smiled at the creature, he couldn’t wait to ask Stiles questions about everything...Once his friend had a better handle on it of course. 

The teen got no warning when the Bastili decided to end the staring contest. Isaac groaned, wincing when the cat suddenly crashed forward their heads colliding in a mighty crack. The teen falling backward to clutch his forehead at the same time he made a gasping sound as the Bastili laid itself out on top of him.

“Isaac?!”

The teen groaned as he rubbed his head, his eyes squinted shut. “Ow dude, that hurt.” Canting his head up and opening them to glare at the cat, his eyes widened upon realizing just what he was seeing. Stiles or rather the Bastili was literally laying on top of him. Swallowing, Isaac said in a cautious tone. “Hey, dude...Comfy?”

The cat was staring back at him impassively, its head resting just above his sternum. Isaac rubbed his forehead even while staring at it, the Bastili made no move to do anything else but lay there.

“You okay?” 

Isaac glanced at Scott, giving a nod. “Yeah, he gave a mean headbutt.” The teen smiled reassuringly to the concerned Alpha. “He’s also kinda heavy.” Isaac mentioned off handily as he looked back at the cat.

“Is he going to just stay there?” Erica asked apprehensively. “All night?”

Isaac pouted. “Well, this sucks...I mean, it’s not bad but c’ mon I’m not a couch.”

Scott chuckled. “You wanted to be his friend.”

The teen glared back at the Alpha, but before any more words could be exchanged Derek interceded. “That’s enough, Isaac see if he’ll let you touch him.”

Isaac gave a nod, he was more than happy to attempt that. Curious to know what the Bastili’s fur felt like and more importantly if it would allow him to touch it at all without getting upset. His hand reached up to pet the beast, only to still when it glared. Solidly glared at him, its nose bridge scrunching up though its mouth never shifted. Isaac smirked, putting his hand back down.

“Isaac?”

The teen shook his head. “He was glaring at me, scrunched up his face.” Isaac gave a small chuckle. “He looks annoyed to be honest.”

Scott huffed. “We’re annoyed, he’s got no reason to be complaining right now. He’s using you as a pillow.”

“True.” Isaac muttered. “He’s very warm.”

“Most supernatural creatures are.” Derek commented as he got to his feet to close the distance between them all. The Bastili arched its head around to see him, apparently pleased to find the Alpha drawing closer to it. Derek smiled as he sat himself on the other side of Scott with Isaac in the middle, only a few feet away from Isaac, Derek had a better vantage point and the ability to touch the cat itself. He reached out with no hesitancy to stroke the cat’s hindquarter, mindful of the quills there just in case. The cat didn’t appear to care, its quills laying passive as its tail trailed back and forth in a leisurely pattern.

“Well, at least he likes you.” 

Derek met Isaac’s gaze. “He doesn’t dislike you from the looks of it.” The Alpha threw out.

Isaac hummed. “I think he’s just using me as a couch, he wasn’t too happy at the prospect of me touching him.”

“Try again.” Scott suggested. “Now that Derek’s there he might allow it.”

Isaac didn’t go against that logic, eager to get a chance to touch the Bastili. Raising his hand up to pet the beast once more, the green eyes leveled on him and then his hand. The cat’s bridge kinked up, but not as severely as before. Taking it for what it was, Isaac slowly brought his hand closer. The Bastili watching him like a hawk as the boy's fingers sunk into the fur by its front leg. Green eyes went back up to the teen, watching. Isaac smirked as he felt the course fur beneath a velvety fluff, insulation against weather most likely the hot sun and sand that it was meant for. Isaac stroked the creature's shoulder carefully, doing his best to be mindful of any quills that might be lurking though he hadn’t found a single one near the cat’s leg.

“He’s really soft.”

Derek smirked. “On the top.”

“Yeah, his undercoat is just like any other animal, it’s protective.” Isaac glanced towards Scott. “It’s a lot like those hunting hounds we helped Deaton with the other day.”

Scott nodded. “Huh, interesting.”

“Why don’t you try?” Isaac suggested as he continued to pet the Bastili.

Scott was all for that, but he knew that the Bastili wasn’t exactly keen on Isaac’s continued touching not if the way the cat was focused solely on the blonde was any indication. He wasn’t sure if Isaac had noticed that or not, most likely too caught up in the wonder of the beast than in the actions it was making against him. 

The Bastili laid there, sprawled out on the teen that was petting it. Calculating gaze locked onto the teen's fingers as they drifted through its undercoat, occasionally it’s gaze would go to that of the Alpha but more often than not it focused on the blonde it was laying upon. The boy’s gentle touches were ignored, forgotten now that the wolf had been introduced. It was this continued assessment that lead to something new, something that none of the pack had anticipated.

Seemingly from one moment to the next, the Bastili decided on something and with no warning, it did as it pleased. In the next moment, the cat was lunging and taking the semi-reclined Isaac down with a startled yelp. Scott and Derek moved forward, desperate to pull the cat off of the Beta before he could be hurt when Isaac started laughing. They froze, their fingers inches from the cat’s body.

“Isaac?”

“Oh god...Stop...Stop it tickles...Damn it...Derek get him off.”

The two Alpha’s sat there in confusion and relief, Scott leaned forward a bit to see for himself and yes, the Bastili was licking the blonde. Smirking he sat back and shook his head, letting Isaac suffer the cat’s attention. 

Isaac was patting the Bastili’s flank he commanded. “Get off of him, ugh, stop...No, it tickles.”

The cat itself was making small grumbles, ones that depicted that it wanted the boy to hold still and submit to its ministrations. Isaac didn’t appear to be getting with that program which resulted in the Bastili being more forceful with how its body was draped across the teen, successfully pinning one of the boy's arms.

Derek shook his head, amused but cautious as he watched the Bastili ‘torture’ his Beta. Isaac was laughing way too hard for his complaints to be serious, so like Scott, he ignored them. He let it go on for a few minutes before patting the Bastili himself. “Alright, let him breathe.”

As if it knew that it was being told to stop it turned its head, the cat's tongue half out as it glared at him. 

Raising a brow at the not impressive look being given by the Bastili Derek ordered. “Off.”

It snorted back at him but before any of them started to worry about it ignoring Derek's order, the Bastili rose and walked off of the boy. 

Issac sat up on his elbows and used a hand to wipe at his face, his cheeks flushed from the laughing he’d been doing along with after effects of his ‘bath’.

“You okay?” Scott attempted to hide his amusement to the Beta’s plight, but it didn’t matter as Isaac was in too good of a mood despite his torture to care.

Issac nodded. “God that was weird.” He had a broad smile on his face as he continued to watch the Bastili who just moments ago been giving him a tongue bath.

“So that was interesting.”

Issac looked at Scott and nodded. “Yeah...His tongue’s like sandpaper...Like a house cat’s only bigger.”

Scott smiled back at Isaac before something came to mind, looking back at Derek the Alpha questioned. “Why the hell would he lick him instead of attacking him? He wasn’t happy about being touched just a minute ago.”

“Well, Derek did tell him he was pack.” Erica chimed in.

Boyd nodded his head as they both watched the Bastili as it sat a few feet away from Isaac and groomed its paw. 

“Yeah, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to take a chunk out of him for pushing it.” Scott rallied. “It just meant he wasn’t going to talk while doing it.”

Isaac snorted. “He was pretty easy to read.”

“So you knew for a fact that he wasn’t about to maim you?” Erica shot out challengingly.

Isaac huffed. “No.”

She nodded. “Didn’t think so.” 

Scott ignored the bickering Beta’s in lue of meeting Derek’s gaze. “What was that about?”

“He was testing him...Somehow.” Derek admitted defeat in that arena. “Though I don’t know why.” The Alpha watched on as the cat bathed itself as if it had somehow gotten dirty from its time of bathing Isaac.

“Well, at least it didn’t attack him.” Scott muttered even as he continued to give the Bastili a curious look. 

Then as if it was his sole job to frustrate the pack, especially his Alphas, Isaac did something incredibly reckless. Smirking at the bathing cat, the teen called out to it.

“Pst.”

The cat’s head lifted up in an instant mid wash of its paw, its ears flickering as it registered the noise. Smiling as he’d garnered its attention Isaac called out. “Come here.”

Scott and Derek watched, waiting to see what the Bastili would do. Issac wasn’t an Alpha, so technically the Bastili didn’t have to react to him at all. And even if it did react it didn’t have to do so nicely. The Bastili seemed to find the boy's request intriguing enough as it rose to its feet once again and trotted over, head bumping against Isaac and tossing the boy's head back at its strength. Issac laughed as he reached out and petted the cat that was grumbling back at him. 

Scott shook his head as he stood up, staring down impressed. “Nevermind what I said.”

Derek glanced away from Isaac and the Bastili, looking at him perplexed as he gained his own footing.

“He’s the cat whisperer.”

  
  



	21. Play turns to fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pack get used to the Bastili and wonder how they're supposed to get Stiles back in control of this unique form. The charm that Deaton gave them doesn't seem to be all the druid told them it would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter of this incredibly long fic lol. I'm still surprised with how long each chapter is but I did that on purpose so I wouldn't be posting this story for the next two years XD. That said, I am at a point in the revisions where I'm considering changing a BIG point in the story, so without giving anything away I have a question for you all.
> 
> During this first shift of Stiles:  
> Do you want a scene with Chris and Allison? OR Do you want the pack to be solely involved?

Derek gave Scott an unimpressed look, not that it seemed to have any effect on the younger Alpha. Scott was too busy grinning as he watched the Bastili accost Isaac once more because of the Beta’s curiosity getting the better of him. When his scowl wasn’t put to good use, Derek turned to look at what the Bastili was actually doing. 

The cat had headbutted Isaac, quickly throwing the teen back to the ground and flopping on top of him once more. Earning it an oomph from Isaac as the breath was pushed out of him by the weight of the cat. Laughing breathlessly, Isaac stroked the Bastili’s head as it made grumbling noises at him.

“I like you to.” Isaac grinned as the cat rubbed against him all while pinning him to the floor. The great cat’s head twisted this way and that, rubbing across the wolf’s frame as it wrapped a mighty paw around the teen to hold him in place. Isaac let out a chuckle as he was forced to stay where the Bastili wanted him, he endured it only because it was amusing and he found it fun to participate...That and he wasn’t really sure how to get out of the impressive beasts hold. 

“Well, he’s made a friend.” Erica retorted dryly as she watched on from the side as Isaac was used as the Bastili’s own personal teddy bear.

Scott and Derek nodded, watching as the cat was grumbling and growling all while rubbing against Isaac. It was only a few minutes later that the Bastili chose to cease it’s rubbing and start with the biting. Isaac winced as the cat wrapped its steel-like jaws around his arm and chewed on him.

“Isaac?” Derek took a step forward prepared to intervene but paused when the Beta announced.

“So...Teeth, but not?” The blonde stared up at the two Alphas with a questionable look.

“What the hell does that mean?” Erica asked in annoyance.

“Umm...Well, it means there are teeth and not teeth.” Isaac stated in a ‘duh’ manner all while grimacing from time to time.

“He’s hurting you.” Scott made to lean over and try and move the beast only to jerk back when the cat let go of Isaac and turned to hiss at him. It’s tail coming eerily close to hitting him with the raised quills.

Isaac sighed at the cat’s aggressive behavior. “I was fine.” Reaching out the teen attempted to settle the cat which was glaring at Scott for having attempted to touch it. The Bastili grumbled but slowly after a few more strokes of the teen's hand, settled. Isaac gave Scott a pained look. “Sorry dude, I don’t know what his deal is.”

Scott shook his head, he didn’t know either but it was clear that the Bastili wanted nothing to do with him. “Was he hurting you?”

“Not really...It was kinda like a kitten biting you.” The pack stared back at the teen as if he was nuts, Isaac for his part just shrugged. “What, it was.” He defended.

“Those are big teeth for a kitten.” Boyd commented.

Isaac tilted his head to stare back at his fellow Beta. “Right?” He laughed. “But he wasn’t hurting me, it was more like a pinching sensation.” Making eye contact with Derek, he was sure to point out. “He wasn’t piercing my skin.”

Derek gave a nod to Isaac even as his eyes stayed trained on Stiles, the cat was once more content to lounge on Isaac. Grumbling as it saw fit, but the one thing that hadn’t changed was the state of its quills. They were still erect and Derek caught onto the fact that the Bastili kept sending glances towards Scott. Why the cat was so against the other Alpha he wasn’t sure, they were best friends but Derek had to admit that their relationship had nothing to do with this situation. Still, it bothered him not only to see that Stiles was reacting negatively to his friend but also the look Scott held when the cat did so. He just couldn’t figure out why the Bastili was acting so violently towards Scott rather than him or Isaac. With nothing else to do but wait, Derek turned his attention towards the only other members of the pack who hadn’t been properly introduced to the Bastili.

“Erica, Boyd, we need to get him used to you.”

The girl gave him a disbelieving look. “You sure about that?” Derek scowled. “Just saying, he seems to like Isaac the best.”

Before anyone could say anything about that, Isaac interrupted. “Probably because I smell like oranges.” The teen laughed.

The pack snorted in unison to the teen’s apparent theory, Derek shook his head giving Erica and Boyd a piercing look. One that clearly depicted what he expected of them, Erica sighed and with a shrug stepped forward. Neither her or Boyd got far before Scott spoke up, a frown being leveraged at Derek.

“He doesn’t even like me right now, do we really want to put them in the middle of this?” He waved a hand towards the cat that was still laying on top of Isaac.

Derek sighed. “There isn’t going to be a better time Scott.”

“So what? We just let him lash out at them too?”

“We don’t know if he’ll do that.”

Scott huffed. “Really? You don’t know if he’ll do that?” The tone of derision in his voice had Derek scowling, Scott sent his own impressive glower back at the older Alpha.

The Alpha’s glared at one another, neither willing to budge. Erica and Boyd shared a look, one they’d dealt to each other more than one time since the two Alpha’s had started ‘sharing’ the responsibilities of being the Alpha of the pack. They took a step back away from the quarreling Alphas and the Bastili who was happily accosting their friend. Best to stay out of it, all of it.

Isaac ignored whatever bickering the two men were doing, he was happily occupied with entertaining the Bastili...Or rather in making sure that the entertained Bastili didn’t eat him in its entertainment. He laughed as the cat once more wrapped it’s impressive fangs around his arm, knawing on him as if it were intending to eat him but giving no more pressure than one would expect a house cat to give its owner. Using his free hand, the blonde reached up and scratched the cat’s brow. It didn’t take long for the jaws of steel around his arm to slacken as the cat grumbled in pleasure to the teen’s fingers sinking into its fur and rubbing. 

Isaac’s eyes widened when the cat’s mouth moved away from his arm, licking it a few times with half-closed eyes of contentment before its head came up to stare at him. His hand had fallen away the moment the cat had shifted about, they stared at one another a moment. Isaac wondering what the cat was looking for, let alone what it was about to do. The Beta didn’t have to wait long as the cat leaned forward to sniff him once more, butting heads in a harsh crack that had Isaac groaning upon falling backward again. The Bastili gave a pleased rumble as it collapsed on top of Isaac, rubbing its head against the teen's chest as its paws came to wrap around the teen when he tried to sit up. Huffing as he was effectively being pinned and given a very awkward hug by the large cat, Isaac muttered. “Headbutts aren’t the nicest way to say you like someone ya know.”

The cat ignored whatever attempt he’d made at chastizing it, in fact, the Bastili didn’t appear to have taken the time to hear him at all, too caught up in its own world to bother with Isaac’s. The Bastili leaned closer, one large paw wrapped around Isaac as the Bastili flopped further onto him. Giving a huff of laughter, Isaac attempted to relieve himself of the overgrown cat throw that was on top of himself. It became clear pretty fast that the Bastili wasn’t going to listen to that either.

The bickering that had been going on above Isaac’s head had ended, no one had really won that particular argument but Derek had a way of going about things. Namely, he ignored Scott and went forward with what he had planned regardless of the teen’s attempts to thwart him.

Derek gave a nod to Erica once more. “Come on.” All while ignoring the heated glare that was being leveraged at him from the other side of the prone Isaac and Bastili. 

Erica glanced between the two Alpha’s more curious than bothered at the prospect of being caught in the middle of the pair's argument. When nothing happened, she nodded pulling Boyd alongside her to approach everyone else. 

Seeing the two Beta’s listening to him, Derek turned his sights onto Isaac and the Bastili who was still using the boy as some kind of furniture or at least that was what he had assumed was going on. Now, however, he saw that things had changed in the time it took him and Scott to growl at each other. The Bastili was still on top of Isaac but was now effectively hugging him, its large paws wrapped around the boy as it resisted the blondes attempts to free himself. Ordinarily, this would have been amusing, well, it still was, but Derek had things that needed to be taken care of before he could mock either Stiles or Isaac. 

“Isaac.”

“Yeah?” The blonde called back as he struggled to push the giant cat off of him, not managing to do so not only because he was laughing but because of the Bastili’s refusal to participate in removing itself from Isaac’s body.

“When you get the chance, I’d like to introduce Erica and Boyd...So if you could stop wrestling with him that would be good.” Derek smirked down at Isaac as the boy looked up over the cat’s shoulder, an obvious putout look on the teens face upon finding that the Alpha was amused at his current situation. Derek didn’t say another word, just waited to see what the Beta would do in order to reign in the cat. 

Rolling his eyes when Derek didn’t move to help him, the teen muttered “Sure...Uh...One minute.” The boy resumed his struggle for a minute or so, huffing and puffing as he attempted to remove the Bastili from his person. “Get off...You’re heavy...Oomph...Off...Off. Stiles come on man, we can play later...Stop chewing on me.” The teen groaned when not only did the Bastili re-cement it’s hold on him, but it had taken to once more chewing on him. It’s maw wrapping around his shoulder as it ‘chewed’ on the struggling teen.

Shaking his head at the teen’s many failed attempts to free himself of Stiles, Derek called out.

“Off.”

The Alpha’s simple command had the cats head twisting about to stare at him a moment before it stood over Isaac, hovering over the panting teen.

“Thanks.”

Ignoring Isaac for the moment Derek called out to the cat. “Come here Stiles.”

The cat’s ears flickered as it gazed back at the Alpha, upon hearing the command it walked over, leaving Isaac behind. Sitting in front of Derek it waited patiently for the Alpha to do or say something, Derek remained resolutely silent. Intent on giving Scott a chance to get Isaac up off the floor so they might avoid any further attempts by the Bastili to latch onto them as it had Isaac.

Isaac was relieved when the Bastili finally got off of him, he hadn’t been joking when he said that the cat weighed some. All that fur had to weigh a ton if what he’d been feeling was anything to go by. Any thoughts he had about the Bastili were waylaid as he was yanked to his feet by Scott, the Alpha was shaking his head at the teen.

Already knowing what the look was for, Isaac shrugged. “Hey, it was fun.”

Rolling his eyes Scott manhandled the Beta off a ways to give Derek and the rest of the pack room to introduce Erica and Boyd to the cat. The pair came closer as one, not overly surprising, but the cat’s head twisted about to glare at them when they encroached upon Derek and its space.

“No.” Derek was quick to intercede after catching the cat’s subtle shift in demeanor. The Bastili’s hackles beginning to raise upon noticing the new wolves, it let out a huff at being denied and glared at the pair as if they were at fault for its being held back from maiming them.

Derek was ignorant to the look the Bastili was giving his Beta’s, too intent on getting his own point across. “They’re pack, they’re friends.”

The cat grumbled once more as the Alpha’s orders were once more reinforced, it stayed by Derek’s feet and continued to glare. 

Erica smirked when it appeared that the Bastili would continue listening to Derek about the whole maiming thing. Unable to hold herself back, the girl commented in an amused fashion. “Aren’t you grumpy.”

Boyd chuckled at his girlfriend's remark, the cat’s ears twitching as it tilted its head at her. Smirking Erica told the Bastili. “You’re not so terrifying when you roll over like a kitten.”

The Bastili’s eyes narrowed almost as if it could understand that Erica was taunting it, it’s maw raising a bit to show off the impressive teeth it had. Erica’s smirk remained even as she asked Derek. “So what now?”

Derek shook his head, he really didn’t have any idea other than to have the Beta’s step forward as he repeatedly told the cat no. With no other alternative, Derek waved at her. “Just come closer.”

“And do what?” Erica chimed with a smile. “Try and pet Mr. grumpy pants? I don’t think he likes that idea.”

“Just do it.”

Erica shrugged, taking a step closer to the Alpha only to pause when the beast growled once more. Derek quickly took it in hand. “No.”

The Bastili quieted though it continued to glare at her, its maw still raised. Erica sighed, shooting a looked towards Derek. “He’s still not happy.”

“You didn’t actually expect him to be did you?” Scott countered with irritation, though it wasn’t directed at the girl so much as the cat.

Erica shrugged. “Wasn’t counting on anything in particular, but he definitely has a temper.”

“Once he gets used to you he’s fine.” Isaac chimed in even as he remained next to Scott, that was more because the Alpha had grabbed his elbow to stop him from distracting the cat again. 

“Yeah, well he’s not used to me.”

Derek sighed, they were getting side-tracked and no closer than getting the Bastili used to them. “Just come forward.”

She hummed, doing as asked. She got two more steps forward before the beast growled, quickly silencing itself when Derek spoke to it. Erica took another step all without being asked, she was well within the cat's space, easily attacked if it chose to ignore Derek’s orders. The Bastili sat there, glaring up at the girl. Erica didn’t look away or ask Derek what to do next, she took it into her own hands. Surprising everyone by kneeling down, the Bastili’s head followed her until they were nearly eye to eye. Erica smiled at the beast. “You know for someone who’s really pissy, your still quite pretty.”

“I don’t think Stiles would like being called pretty.”

Erica ignored Isaac, giving the cat who had settled its maw and no longer using its teeth as a deterrent to the girl's progression upon its personal space. 

“Let him smell you.”

“I think he already can.” Erica chimed in.

Derek shook his head quickly telling the girl. “Make sure that he’s scenting you.”

Sighing at the constant bombardment of orders, the girl slowly raised an arm putting her hand in front of the cats face a ways off. The cat’s maw rose again but slowly lowered when it registered that the girl wasn’t doing anything more than raising her hand towards it. Snorting the cat leaned its head forward to scent at her, its breath ghosting Erica’s fingers though it never came close enough to touch her. Its green eyes went from Erica’ palm to the girl's face, Erica didn’t waver as she waited to see what the Bastili decided. The Bastili surprised them all when it suddenly rose to its feet and turned around, taking the few steps needed to be back at Derek’s side. The pack stared at the beast in surprise, it hadn’t done anything other than scent Erica.

“So is that a good thing?” Erica questioned all while standing.

Derek frowned down at the cat but shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“He didn’t react negatively towards her.” Scott suggested plainly.

“But he also didn’t show any signs of liking her.” Isaac added.

Erica sighed. “So I’m neutral territory.” The boy's smirked at her which ultimately had Erica rolling her eyes back at them. “Now what?” She challenged.

“Boyd’s turn.” Isaac said with a smile.

The normally quiet teen nodded, not arguing as he took a few steps forward to be by Erica’s side. The Bastili had turned to regard him with a glare, it’s maw lifting only for its noises to be cut off abruptly by Derek.

“No.”

The cat seemingly huffed in annoyance but did nothing more but glare. It’s teeth still on show despite it never once using them to harm any of them. 

Boyd took the silent actions of the cat at face value, slowly he knelt down so as to make himself a smaller target and by default less of a threat. None of the pack commented on his actions, instead watching eagerly to see what the Bastili would do. The cat gazed perceptually at the large teen, waiting for the boy to make some kind of gesture. When Boyd remained stationary the cat stepped forward, its maw shifting about as it drew closer to the teen. It glanced up at Erica as if to see what she would do as he came closer, when Erica remained as she was, smiling did the Bastili continue with its course. It’s green eyes narrowing as its head moved forward to scent the teen, Boyd allowed the cat to do whatever it pleased. Boyd felt it’s warm breath ghost his face, remaining absolutely still as the cat broke away to circle him. Boyd remained facing forward, not daring to turn to follow the cat's progression around him. Erica did, however, watch the cat as it circled the teen, coming to walk between them. Erica frowned when she felt it brush against her legs as there wasn’t enough space for it to not touch them as it passed through them. The cat didn’t seem to care, just continuing with it’s prowling around Boyd. When it made yet another pass around the teen it startled them all by jumping, it’s front paws landing on the teen's shoulders as the Bastili leaned forward to sniff once more. Boyd bore the weight of the animal easy enough, but he did look to Derek for guidance as to what to do. Derek held out his hand, urging the Beta to tolerate its exploration of himself. Boyd frowned when he felt the beasts warm breath on the back of his head, it’s heavy paws were weighing down on his shoulders almost as if it was trying to make him lie down. Boyd was sure that wasn’t its intentions, it was simply using him as a way to reach his head. The wolf couldn’t help but rationalize that it could have scented him without climbing on him, but he didn’t say a word as he faced the brunt of the cat's weight as it had its fill of him. Boyd’s eyes came wide a moment later when a moist, dragging sensation went up the backside of his head, he grimaced when it happened again.

“You okay?” Scott hedged carefully.

“He’s licking me.” Boyd muttered, giving the Alpha a rather put out look.

Isaac chuckled. “Hey, he likes you.”

Boyd sighed, letting the beast do as it liked even if the sensation of the sandpapery tongue going up the backside of his head made his spine tingle. The Bastili continued to lathe at the back of his head for a few minutes as if it was cleaning something from him that only the cat could see. None of the pack intervened, figuring that it was best to let the Bastili ‘bond’ with Boyd in whatever means it saw fit. Even if Boyd looked less than enthused. The small grumbling noises that were leaving the cat seemed to indicate that it was enjoying or at the very least appreciative that Boyd wasn’t disturbing its actions. The bathing continued for a further five minutes, must to Boyd’s chagrin. When the cat was done it hopped down from the boy's shoulders, brushing against his shoulder as it weaved its way between Erica and him on its way back to Derek.

The pack stood there, silently waiting to see if the cat was really done. When it took a seat next to Derek they figured that all was well. Boyd climbed back to his feet, swiping at the back of his head to try and remove the residual moisture left behind by the beast's tongue. He gave the Bastili an annoyed look but didn’t say anything about the impromptu bath. 

“So why did Boyd get a bath and Erica get the cold shoulder?” Scott wondered aloud.

“Probably the same reason he seems pissy at you.” Isaac muttered. “Which makes no sense.”

The others nodded, none of them could figure out why the Bastili was acting the way it was towards Scott or Erica, though it was far more violent towards Scott in its dismissal. 

Erica sighed even as she stood beside Boyd who was still wiping at the back of his head. “Does it matter? Come morning we’ll figure it all out, so long as he’s not trying to eat someone we’re fine.”

Scott didn’t seem as impressed with that notion, though he didn’t say anything. The pack fell into silence, their gaze flitting from one another and then ultimately to the Bastili who was seated beside Derek washing its paw. Derek glanced down at the beast, a frown marring his face. He wasn’t sure what to do now, the Bastili seemed calm at least but it wasn’t showing any signs of Stiles learning to be in control. It was clear to the Alpha that what was before them was simply the animal nature of the Bastili, the teen trapped somewhere inside as the instincts overrode his ability to retain control over his own body. 

“So now what?”

All eyes turned to Isaac, no one seemed to have an answer for the blonde teen. The pack glancing around to each other as if waiting for someone to come up with some kind of idea as to what they were supposed to do now. When no one voiced an opinion, Isaac knelt down and got the Bastili’s attention once more.

“Pst.”

The cat’s head came up from washing its paw, regarding the teen quietly. Isaac smacked his thigh. “You wanna come here?”

The cat remained still, watching silently as the blonde stayed knelt on the floor. Just as Isaac was about to stand up seeing as the Bastili hadn’t reacted, Isaac found himself being bowled over by the Bastili who ran and then pounced. Isaac let out a hasty Oomph as the cat collided with him, knocking the very breath from his lungs as they fell to the ground with a meaty smack.

The pack winced on Isaac’s behalf, Scott quickly calling out. “You good?”

Isaac raised a hand, thumbs up even as he groaned. Shaking his head Scott muttered. “Seriously dude you gotta stop treating him like he’s a kitten, he’s way too big for that.”

Isaac huffed even as he was sprawled out on his back, the Bastili grumbling as it rubbed against him. Chewing on his shoulder a few times all without any desire to actually hurt the teen, Isaac shrugged even as he ran his hand through the Bastili’s banded coat. 

“I mean he’s kinda like a kitten...He’s playful.”

Scott rolled his eyes, not convinced in the least. “Sure dude, whatever you say.”

Erica and Boyd chuckled at the flat tone of voice Scott had used, Derek was too busy watching Isaac interact with the Bastili to comment on Isaac’s defense of the giant beast being a kitten. Despite its large size and imposing features, the cat was happily grumbling all while rubbing against Isaac and allowing the wolf to pet it. Its quills lay flat against its sleek form, not in the least erect as to be armed for the cat's protection. It was plain to see that the Bastili had absolutely no problems with Isaac, Derek wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. Sure the two teens were friends, but then again the whole pack was. Stiles was closer to Scott than anyone else, which made sense when you figured in how they grew up together. The Bastili didn’t seem to have that sense, it didn’t like Scott for whatever reason but seemed to love pouncing on Isaac. None of it made any sense. 

Derek’s gaze shifted over to Scott when the other Alpha took a step back and sat down, leaning against one of the pillars in the lofts living space. The teen had a look about him, almost defeated. Derek scowled, he knew this had to be tough on Scott but there was nothing they could do. The Bastili was the one in control right now, were it Stiles he had no doubt that it would be Scott being accosted right now rather than Isaac. He left the teen to clear his own thoughts but motioned for the others to take a seat. They might as well be comfortable, it was going to be a long night.

 

**********

 

Two hours passed without incident, Isaac kept the Bastili entertained, for the most part, the giant cat tussling with the teen off and on. Rising only when Derek told it to give the poor Beta a break, it was after he’d relinquished the teen of his burden once more that a conversation struck up. The Bastili had walked over to rub against Derek before settling at his side, Derek gave it a small smirk by now used to the affectionate greeting the cat had for them.  When the cat was settled once more Derek turned to address the rest of the pack.

“I suppose now would be a good time to try and get him to focus.”

“Do Bastili’s have anchors?” Erica questioned in a skeptical manner as she looked at the cat in question.

Derek shrugged, nothing was certain when it came to the Bastili, there just wasn’t enough information for them to go off of. 

“Won't hurt to try though.” Isaac added. 

Erica glanced at him before asking. “What would Stiles anchor be if he had one?”

They looked to Scott, the Alpha gave them a shocked look in return when it appeared they wanted something from him. “What?”

“You know him best.” Came the haughty reply from Erica. 

Glaring at the girl Scott replied. “Doesn’t mean I know what would focus his mind Erica. Anchors are personal, you know that. What works for one person won't work for another. It could be anything. Us, his dad, hell even his mom.”

Isaac grinned. “The jeep.”

Scott snorted at the blondes idea, that wouldn’t surprise him. “That too. Point is even with as well as I know him, there is no way I could know what he might use as an anchor.”

Boyd glanced over to the kitchen countertop, all the items they had gathered for Stiles shift were laying there. Releasing his arm from around Erica he climbed to his feet and walked over to scooped up the charm. The teen stared at it for a moment, remembering that it was supposed to help Stiles gain control over himself. Boyd let it dangle from the small cord it came on before twisting about to show it to the pack.

“Perhaps...This will guide him?”

Erica smirked at her boyfriend. “All we need is a way to put it around his neck.” She took in the small cord that it came on with a shake of her head. “No way that’s fitting around his neck.”

The others nodded in agreement which spurred Derek onto mention. “I have something that would work upstairs.”

The pack looked at him, it was Erica’s smirk that caused him to glare as he was well aware of where her particular mind would go with that. Seeing as upstairs was his bedroom.

“Not for that.” He scowled even as got to his feet to storm up the stairs to his bedroom.

They chuckled at the Alpha as he stormed over to the stairs, only to pause when Scott laughed.

“You got a shadow dude.”

Glancing back Derek saw the Bastili trotting along behind him. Smirking he told it. “Stay here.”

The cat’s head tilted to the side, but it sat down at the bottom of the stairs to wait for the Alpha. Nodding Derek made his way upstairs to retrieve the cord. The cat blinked up at the stairs a moment before its ears twitched at a familiar sound. Twisting its head about it raced over towards the boy calling it and barrelled into him. The others snorted.

“He’s going to break your ribs if you keep doing that.”

Isaac was laughing though as he play fought the beast. Even being so bold as to grab its elongated fangs to control its head. It growled playfully at him and shook its head to jerk his arms about. Derek walked back down the stairs and shook his head at the sight of Isaac playing with Stiles once more, it seemed to be a habit that was forming with the pair. He ignored the two tussling on the floor as he walked over to Boyd and slid the charm onto the length of cord he retrieved from upstairs. Turning around he arched a brow at the ‘fighting’ pair on the ground.

“Isaac were ready.”

The boy tilted his head back and smiled. “Okay.” Looking back at the Bastili the boy said. “Come on, Derek’s got something for you.”

The blonde shoved at the creature a moment before it got the hint that the boy wasn’t playing. It grumbled at the lose of its playmate, glaring at the teen as if he should feel bad for disrupting its fun. Isaac chuckled as he climbed to his feet and walked over to Derek. The Bastili followed after him, coming to sit in front of them patiently waiting for something. Kneeling down, Derek held up the charm. “Hold still, this should help.”

The Alpha carefully brought the makeshift necklace towards the cat. It watched him and stood perfectly still as he moved the necklace over its head and let it fall against its neck. With the charm safely in place, the Alpha stared into the green orbs and told the Bastili.

“ I want you to focus, think about something that grounds you. That reminds you of who you are. Stiles, you control it don’t let it control you.”

The cat’s ears flickered a bit as Derek talked to it as if it was absorbing each and every word the man said. When the Alpha was done talking the Bastili sat there a moment as if absorbing the ‘lesson’ the Alpha had preached. Then it turned and attacked Isaac’s leg like a kitten would do, Isaac laughed but winced under the glare he got from Derek.

“What...Sorry...He likes to play.”

Sighing Derek stood back up and said. “And we need him to focus now.”

Isaac tried to nod along with a straight face, but it failed spectacularly as the Bastili grumbled and growled like an oversized kitten and chewed on him. Isaac’s smirk finally became a full smile before he hastily apologized and broke down laughing. 

Scott snorted. “Yeah, this is going well.”

Derek gave him a sidelong glance before nodding his head in agreement, looking back to Isaac he saw the teen leaning over and at least trying to get the cat to stop playing with him. It wasn’t working though, shaking his head Derek told the others.

“Guess we’ll have to wait until morning and find if he had any moments of clarity.”

The others nodded, well prepared to do just that since the Bastili seemed fine to tolerate them the rest of the night. Settled in to watch over the beast they began joking from time to time as Isaac struggled to contain the Bastili, wondering who would be more tired come morning Stiles or Isaac. The blonde didn’t seem to find that nearly as amusing as the others did, but that was fine they just ignored his pouting and carried on. 

Even Isaac had his limits and as hesitant as he was to admit defeat, he needed to. Isaac was panting as he fought off the beast once more.

“Someone...Needs... To... Distract... Him...Please....” The pack smiled at the Beta as he struggled to breath. He was sweating from the tumbling he’d been doing with the energetic cat who had yet to tire.

“Thought he was just a kitten?” Erica smiled innocently. 

Isaac glared at her even as he rasped. “Big...Kitten...”

Chuckling Erica glanced to Boyd. “Well, you’re the only one else he’s chewed on besides Derek. You want to give it a shot?” No one else had tried to instigate any play with the cat, it was entirely up to Boyd to decide if he was capable and up to the Bastili on whether or not it would accept.

Boyd smirked at her, giving a shrug it was worth a try. Worst case scenario the Bastili ignores him as it had been prone to doing when anyone moved about now. He moved a ways away from Erica before trying to get the Bastili’s attention, ensuring that his girlfriend wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire. Boyd let out a loud whistle that instantly got the cat’s attention, the Bastili’s head came up instantly upon registering the noise and when it saw Boyd kneeling with his hands out, it stood from Isaac in a curious manner. Isaac slumped against the floor in relief.

Boyd nodded to the Bastili. “Come here.”

The cat lowered itself and for one brief moment they thought that it was going to go right back to tormenting Isaac, but rather than lay back down on top of the blonde it sprang forward. Boyd didn’t have time to brace himself before he was being taken down by the cat, whose arms came around the teen’s ribs and shoulder to throw him to the ground. The pack flinched, Erica gasped as her boyfriend was so heatedly attacked.

Boyd grimaced as he crashed into the floor, it was a hard takedown and if he hadn’t of been a wolf something definitely would have been broken. As it was his body radiated a sense of unease, he peered up into the bright green eyes. The cat's maw opened a hair as it breathed against him, Boyd smirked reached up with a hand to at first pet the cat's neck and then shove it away.

The cat fought back, twisting to try and get its arms firmly locked around him only to yowl when he managed to throw it aside. The Bastili shook its head upon getting to its feet, hunkered low once more, tail thrashing from side to side before it leapt. Boyd chuckled even as he was taken down again, quickly thwarting the cat's attempts to accost him further by rolling it off of him.  

Isaac laughed when he saw Boyd get crashed into by the full force of the cat, the pair fell backward and Boyd was soon wrestling with the Bastili as Isaac had been.

“How does he have so much energy?” Erica pondered aloud even as she grimaced from time to time as the Bastili waged war against Boyd.

“No different than any other shifter who can turn into the animal form.” Erica wasn’t the only one who glanced towards Derek with frowns on their faces. “My sister and mother could...Laura was...Hell.” He admitted with a frown.

Erica smirked at Derek, it was rare he brought up his family so they all cherished it when he did.

“Is it rare? For wolves to be able to do that?”

Derek nodded. “My mother always said that only the best of us could do it. Something about finding a balance in oneself.”

Scott tilted his head a wry smile on his face. “Sounds very zen-like.”

Derek shook his head with a fond smile. “That’s why I hated that explanation, I bothered laura countless times asking how she did it.”

Scott smiled at his fellow Alpha after giving Boyd a glance as he wrestled with Stiles. “She ever tell you?” He asked off handily.

Derek snorted. “Not the real reason, she sent me off on wild goose chases just cause she knew I was gullible.”

Isaac laughed at that. “How many did you fall for?”

Derek sighed, it was embarrassing at the time to have to face his family after falling for her stunts but now...Looking back he had to admit that he was fond of the things his sister pulled on him. “Too many” he admitted.

They all looked over when Boyd grunted, the Bastili had a hold of his arm. Its lengthened fangs on one side and its lower jaws on the other. It was pulling at his arm as if it was some kind of rope to play tug of war with.

“Are you okay?” Erica asked worriedly. 

Boyd glanced at them and nodded. “He’s strong.” He grunted and pulled at his own arm again, the cat growling as it pulled back.

“Maybe...Not using your arm as a stick would be a good idea.” Scott said with a wince as he watched the cat shake its head a bit. 

Boyd smirked as he watched the cat battle against him, informing the rest of his pack. “He’s being gentle actually...He hasn’t drawn blood.”

Scott sighed. “Your arm dude.”

Derek smirked as he watched Boyd use his arm as a toy for the Bastili. Time went by and with it, Derek got lost in his own thoughts.  It was hard to fathom something that could kill so easily, be so dangerous just by existing, was Stiles. Shaking his head at the thought of his first meeting the boy in the woods Derek couldn’t help but wonder if this was how things were meant to be. If he was meant to have found a pack with these unlikely teenagers who somehow had banded together against all odds, Derek wasn’t sure his past self would have ever believed such a thing as possible. Now he knew better, being an Alpha changed things, where once he was to follow now he was to lead. Derek had forged bonds with these people, his pack and throughout it, the one constant had been Stiles. The human boy who ran with wolves, a baseball bat in hand of all things. Seeing that same spastic teen in the form he was now was a contradiction that his mind was still trying to fathom. Derek was jarred from his musings when he saw Isaac rejoin the battle to overthrow the Bastili who was still occupied with Boyd. It was growling around Boyd's arm, its tail lashing back and forth as Isaac crept up on it. Eyes widening when he saw what was most likely going to happen if Isaac was stupid to do what he believed the Beta was going to do Derek called out. “Don’t!”

It was too late, Isaac startled the cat as it battled with Boyd and a moment later the boy was pulling back with a wince. 

The blonde looked down and his eyes widened at the sight of the three quills sticking out of him. “Oh, shit...”

Isaac fell backward and slumped to the ground in a heap no sooner than had the words left his mouth. The Bastili rounded the moment that its tail had struck out at the teen in its fright, watching as the teen fell to the ground. It backed up when the pack of wolves rounded on their fallen pack member, sinking backward as they were occupied with Isaac. The pack rushed forward the moment that they saw Isaac fall. 

“Isaac, man are you okay?” Scott was looming over the werewolf, taking in the boy's form. Other than the quills the teen seemed to be breathing a bit faster than normal, most likely from adrenaline but other than that he seemed fine.

“Pull them out!” Erica cried. 

Nodding Scott knelt down and gently pulled the three quills out of the boy's side being careful to make sure he didn’t add himself to the floor beside the teen. Scott still winced as he plucked the needle-like armorments from the teen's prone form. 

“Sorry man, that had to sting.”

Isaac blinked up at them a moment before he startled them all by speaking. “This...Is really weird.”

“You can talk!” Erica exclaimed.

Isaac made a noise. “Yeah...Uh, can't move a thing though.”

Derek glared down at the boy, a growl leaving his throat as he asked. “What made you think scaring him would be a good idea?”

Isaac had the decency to look a little sheepish with the little facial expression he had. “Sorry...I forgot.”

Derek’s glare intensified. “You forgot?”

“That’s lame and you know it” Scott retorted hotly.

Isaac sighed, he knew nothing he said right now would get him out of the proverbial dog house so he chose to state rather bluntly. “It's all tingly.”

Rolling his eyes Scott said. “No shit, can you feel yourself healing?”

“Yeah...Well sorta, it’s all slow.”

“That’s the paralytic working. It's going to be a bit before your healing kicks back in and overtakes it.” Derek replied in a perturbed tone. 

Isaac gave a weak smile. “Sorry.”

Snorting Derek ignored the boy's apology, instead choosing to tell Erica.

“Bring up the timer on your phone, we might as well catalog how long it downs him for.”

Erica smiled and nodded, quickly setting up the timer and going so far as to set her phone down on Isaac’s chest. 

Isaac glared up at Erica when the phone was placed on him. “Hey, I’m not a shelf.”

She snorted. “No.” She agreed. “You're an idiot until you can turn that off, it stays.”

Sighing Isaac grumbled. “Whatever...What now?”

The pack glared at him.

“Now you lay here and think about what an idiot you are.” Erica told him in an irritated tone of voice. 

Isaac glared back at her. “I get it alright, won't scare him again...Sheesh.”

Shaking her head Erica lifted it to ask Boyd something when she realized something, despite her boyfriend being focused on Isaac as they all were there was one missing party. Looking around she asked in trepidation. “Where’s Stiles?”

The pack tensed, their gazes leaving Isaac in order to glance about the room searching for the Bastili. Just as Erica had informed them, the cat didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight.

“Is he okay?” Isaac asked.

“Don’t see him.” Boyd informed the downed teen.

“Well, check the rest of the loft, I’m fine here.”

Derek didn’t waste time arguing whether or not they should search for the cat or wherever it might have chosen to hide. Going straight for calling out. “Stiles, come here.”

Nothing.

“He probably doesn’t recognize his own name Derek.” Scott stated in a biting tone as he glanced about, searching for a sign of the Bastili. 

Derek frowned, despite the hostility still lacing Scott’s tone the other Alpha might not be wrong. They’d all been under the assumption that the Bastili recognized the boy's name, but since they were dealing with the Bastili and not Stiles, there was no guarantee. 

“Erica, stay with Isaac.”

“Hey, why do I have to watch the idiot?”

“Hey!”

Derek ignored both of them and instead told Boyd and Scott. “Check everywhere, bathroom, spare rooms, kitchen.”

They all nodded and headed for different areas of the loft. Derek quickly ruled out the kitchen, he turned to look down the hallway and saw that Boyd was entering the bathroom and Scott was going into the spare room. With that area of the loft being searched the Alpha frowned as he too in the living space. The Bastili was clearly not here, as he turned his eyes caught sight of the stairs which lead to his room. Looking up the stairs Derek didn’t bat an eye before going towards them, not bothering to inform anyone of his hunch. Derek idly heard Erica berating Isaac and smirked, the boy wasn’t going to hear the end of this one. 

 

*******************************

 

Climbing the stairs Derek looked around, his bed was stationed in the center of the room. A large window residing just behind the head of it. Along one wall a closet was recessed into and a single dresser was off to the side of it, three picture frames atop it and a small lamp. There didn’t appear to be any sign of the Bastili, frustrated when his hunch turned out to be wrong Derek twisted about to turn and head back down to see if the others had better luck when his eyes caught sight of something. Derek froze, canting his head a hair he smirked, standing still a moment as he took in the sight that he’d nearly missed, he stared at the twin specks of luminescent green that glowed from the recesses of his closet.

“Stiles. You can come out now.”

The cat gave a little grumble but stayed hidden in the dark. Smirking he walked over and knelt down at the opening to the closet.

“It's okay, I know you didn’t mean to paralyze Isaac. He scared you, you didn’t hurt him alright? Everything’s fine.”

The cats head slowly appeared out of the dark confines of the closet as if the Alpha’s words had really made it feel better for having hurt the blonde. It glanced about before its gaze settled back on him, searching to see if there was anyone else looming about, to Derek it appeared nervous. 

“It's okay.” He reassured it, reaching out he delved his hand into the darkness to stroke the cats face a moment.

The cat rumbled at him, staring back at him a while as if it wanted to make sure that the man’s actions continued to follow his words. Derek didn’t begrudge the cat that, just continued to pet the beast until it let out a little chirp. Unsure what that meant for a cat, Derek just settled for reassuring him.

“No one’s angry, Isaac will be fine in a little bit. We were worried when we couldn’t find you, you don’t need to hide from us.”

The cat's sleek frame slowly appeared bit by bit before it came to sit in front of him, now fully in view and easier to reach. 

“That’s good.” Derek allowed his hand to come up to the top of its head and stroke there, petting the cats head, it ducked under his hand at first before rumbling and rubbing against him. Smirking he stroked the cat's ear. “See, nothing is wrong, you’re safe.”

The Bastili made a grumbly pleased sound as it butted its head into his hand, rubbing against him.

“Come on, let's go back downstairs. The others will want to know I found you.”

Patting the cats head one last time Derek stood up and headed for the stairs. He twisted about to make sure the cat was following him. It wasn’t. It was sitting before the closet doors, frowning at the sight of the Bastili not following him Derek urged it. 

“Come on.”

He waved, it made a mrowr sound before trotting towards him. Smirking he headed back down the stairs, the Bastili rushing by his legs and beating him back to the ground floor. Derek looked up when he heard the pack sigh in relief.

“He was upstairs?” Scott called glancing from the cat he’d been assuring himself was alright, back to Derek. 

“Yeah, hiding in my closet.”

Scott smirked as the cat hunkered down a ways away from them.

“He okay?” He frowned at the cat’s odd behavior. 

Derek shook his head. “I think he’s worried we’re mad at him for hurting Isaac.”

“Dude I’m good.” Came the response from said paralyzed boy. 

The group smirked down at Isaac before Erica called out to the cat. “It's okay, no one’s mad.”

The Bastili let out a small grumble towards her, as if it didn’t believe her, none of the wolves took it to heart. 

Scott going onto nod. “She’s right dude, no one’s angry. We all know its Isaac’s fault, not yours.”

“He’s right.” Came the petulant response from Isaac. 

Scott chuckled. “See, even he admits it.” Scott waved a hand at Isaac as if to demonstrate that the downed Beta wasn’t mad.

The cat glanced to Derek who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs as if it was seeking his opinion on the matter. The Alpha nodded. “It's alright Stiles.”

The cat slowly climbed to its feet once more, though it was hesitant as it approached the pack, when it came to sit beside Isaac it let out a small series of chitters.

“Yeah, I know.”

The pack snorted, there was no way Isaac knew what the cat was saying, but he took it as a lecture all the same. The cat folded itself down to lay beside the boy, its head coming to lay across the boy's shoulder. 

Isaac smiled at the gesture. “Aw, he likes me.”

“He paralyzed your stupid ass, he’s just apologizing for your stupidity.”

Isaac glared over at Erica. “Go away, we're having a moment.”

Snorting the girl leaned against Boyd. “Moment my ass.”

Derek shook his head as he rejoined the others around Isaac’s prone form. “You get any sensation back?”

“Never lost it dude, just lost the ability to move.” Giving the boy a look, he saw Isaac smile.

“But I know what you mean and no. Nothing.” 

Nodding Derek glanced to Erica’s phone to see how long it had been, shaking his head the Alpha glanced to Stiles, the cat hadn’t moved from where it lay snuggled up beside Isaac with its head draped across the boy's shoulder. 

“On the plus side...I can tell you that those little quills pack a punch.”

The pack snorted at Isaac as if they didn’t already know that.

“I had like two seconds before everything locked up, it was kinda freaky how fast that worked.”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Well, it would defeat the purpose of paralyzing his prey if he let it run off wouldn’t it.”

Isaac smirked. “Are you kidding, you saw how big he is. You saw him take me and Boyd down over and over again, it might have been in play but those claws and teeth aren’t just for show ya know.”

Erica pursed her lips at the comment. “I know what he could have done to Boyd.” She said in a clipped tone. 

Boyd rubbed her back trying to make her feel better from the earlier fright she had at witnessing the cat ‘play’ with him.“I’m fine, he didn’t wish to hurt me.”

She nodded her head a bit faster than normal. 

Isaac sighed when he picked up on the tension there. “Sorry...I just meant the whole paralyzing thing is really just a dick move.”

Erica smiled at that. “Well, you can tell Stiles all about it in the morning.”

“You bet I will.”

Scott rolled his eyes as the Beta quickly reminding the pack. “He’s going to be freaked out, try not to give him a heart attack by saying he paralyzed you. Tell him you were an idiot first.”

Isaac laughed, Scott had a point there. “Fine- fine...But he’s gonna find out sooner or later and it is actually kinda funny.” The looks he got told the Beta what the rest of the pack thought about his sense of humor. “Or not.”He muttered. 

Ignoring the silent lecture that Isaac had just received Derek told the pack. “We don’t know how Stiles will take the change if it's like ours extreme emotions and stress can trigger it.”

“In other words, don’t freak him out cause we could end up cat sitting again.” Erica muttered back.

Derek scowled a moment before sighing when he thought about it, she wasn’t wrong. “It's possible.”

“We’ll be careful, but knowing Stiles he’s going to be climbing the walls to know if he hurt someone.” Scott told them seriously.

“And we’ll tell him what happened. We just have to make sure it doesn’t push him over the edge so soon after his first shift.”Derek reinforced.

“Hey guys?” They looked down at Isaac who was making a funny face.

“What's wrong?” Scott asked in a perturbed tone of voice. 

Isaac glanced to him and glared.“So sorry to bother you, but he’s kinda...Yeah chewing on me a bit.”

Derek knelt down and smirked. The Bastili was indeed chewing on the boy, but he wasn’t breaking skin. It looked to be more of his previous affection that he’d shown to both him and Boyd. 

“Well you got your wish Isaac, he likes you.” Derek stood with a smirk on his face, prepared to leave the Bastili to whatever it desired so long as it wasn’t actually hurting the Beta.

Isaac glared. “Dude, his teeth are sharp.”

“And he hasn’t broken the skin once.”

Isaac glared all the harder. “So you want to wait until he does?”

Derek shrugged. “He’s happy at the moment.”

“And I’m not you bastard.”

The Alpha smirked down at the Beta who couldn’t do anything at the moment to stop the Bastili from chewing at him. 

“You all suck.”

Erica rolled her eyes at the petulant teen. “Oh please, he’s not hurting you.”

“Fine, you get down here and let him chew on you then.”

Erica smirked. “I’m not the one who got themselves paralyzed. So no.”

Shaking his head at them all Scott called out. “Stiles.”

The cat’s ears twitched upon hearing his name, but the cat didn’t stop in its ministrations on Isaac. The werewolf sighed in defeat, he knew better than to try and get the Bastili’s attention in any other manner.

“Seriously? You’re an Alpha dude, pull him off.”

Scott snorted. “And end up like you...Fuck no. You saw how he’s been reacting to me, I’m not getting paralyzed or worse.”

The pack laughed at that.

“Get...Get the glove things.”

Scott raised a brow and glanced over towards the kitchen counter, that was an option but honestly, he didn’t see that ending well for anyone, least of all himself. Looking back down to Isaac he told the teen. “Think of it this way. Your stupidity made him upset. Now, you're making him feel better.”

Isaac’s mouth fell open. “You want me to play chew toy because I scared him?”

Scott shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

Isaac glared at the Alpha who was smirking back at him.“When he has a handle on this, I’m having him chew on you after he paralyzes you.”

Scott snorted. “Yeah, good luck convincing him to do that.”

Isaac’s eyes glanced towards his shoulder, though he couldn’t see it. “Stiles, they’re being mean. Stop chewing on me.”

The pack watched, waiting to see if the cat would respond to Isaac’s pleas. It didn’t. Isaac sighed. “Gonna shave you man.” The others chuckled at the teen's last-ditch effort to dissuade the beast from chewing on him, it failed spectacularly. Isaac closed his eyes and muttered once more. “If he eats me, I’ll haunt your asses.”

The pack snorted, no one believed the Bastili would actually take a bite out of the paralyzed wolf. It didn’t take long before the pack was all sitting around Isaac and by default, the Bastili, waiting for either Stiles to tire of chewing on him or Isaac regaining his ability to move. 

 

********

 

It took two hours before Isaac could move again, the pack gave him hell through all of it. Luckily Stiles stopped chewing on him after only twenty minutes, his shoulder was decidedly damp though. The pack were all seated around the loft, leaning against the walls and pillars in a tight circle. Stiles was laying beside Derek now and the Alpha was trailing his fingers through the beast's fur. The charm around his neck glinted in the light of the lofts overhead lights, but so far it didn’t appear to have helped Stiles find his anchor. 

“So two hours isn’t so bad in the scheme of things right? I mean a human would be down for a lot longer.”

“The only case we have to go off of is Stiles, but who knows how reliable a time frame that is for a human.”

The others nodded as they listened to Isaac and Erica speak.

“His spark would have changed things considerably right?” Scott asked. 

Derek nodded his head. “A human wouldn’t have been down that long, I think his spark was using the paralysis as a means to harvest the Bastili venom.”

“Shit way to do it.” Isaac muttered. 

The pack smirked at the boy's comment, glancing a moment later when Stiles yawned widely. Showing off his impressive teeth and the lengthened canines before closing his mouth and licking at his lips. 

“It's crazy how intimidating that is.” Isaac muttered aloud. 

Scott nodded beside him.

“ I keep forgetting its Stiles.” Isaac smirked at the Alpha.

“Well, he can’t say he’s defenseless anymore.” Erica mused with a smirk to the imposing beasts form.

Scott snorted.“No, no he can not.”

The Bastili rolled onto its side against Derek’s leg and the Alpha smirked, as he trailed his fingers down its side.

“And now he’s an overgrown kitten again.” Erica relaid to them all.

Scott laughed at the girl's commentary, adding his own. “To be fair he acts that way when he’s had too much Adderall and red bull.”

TheBeta’s were chuckling at their friend's expense, when Derek glanced up away from the cat he was petting to the other Alpha. “I don’t think this is quite the same thing.”

“Nothings the same with Stiles.” Scott shrugged animatedly. “I also never figured that my best friend would turn into a cat.”

“Strange how that works.” Derek said as he looked back down to the cat, he was scratching the beasts chest when it suddenly let out a new sound. A deep rumbling that vibrated through its chest into his fingers. Derek frowned until laughter caused him to look up, Scott and Isaac were laughing hysterically.

“What?”

“He’s purring man, he’s actually purring.” Scott cried out in mirth.

Isaac nodded his head. “Oh my god, he’s not going to believe us.”

Derek smirked at the two teenagers, looking down to Stiles he asked. “That feel good?”

The cat gave a small mrowr sound as it continued to purr, its paws flexing in the air.

“Oh man, you own him. Look at that face, he is blissed out.” Isaac laughed as he watched the Bastili continue to react to what Derek was doing. 

Derek rolled his eyes at the boy. “And you wonder why he chose to chew on you”

The pack erupted into laughter at the shocked look on Isaac’s face, the blonde huffed before retaliating. “Hey, he doesn’t even know who we are at the moment, there’s no way he made a conscious decision to chew on me because he knows it's me.”

Derek's smirk was a little forced as he said. “He might not recognize himself, but he knew enough to try and apologize for what happened.”

Isaac sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“Do you think he’ll remember any of this?” Scott wondered aloud.

Derek shook his head. “I’m not sure.” Looking down at the feline he was petting he spoke almost robotically. “My mother and Laura always did or at least they claimed too...But wolves are different. We’ll just have to wait and see. If Stiles’ like his normal self than he’ll have an entire play by play to inform us about.”

Derek’s voice got stronger as soon as he was no longer speaking about his family.  No one commented on it, instead, they focused on what he had been saying instead of how he said it.

“Well, it’d be kinda cool if he could, make explaining everything easier.”

The others nodded along with Isaac’s statement.

“Less confusion.” Boyd brought up. 

Scott nodded. “That’s for sure.”

Derek stopped his petting of the Bastili and looked up to the rest of the pack. “We’ll deal with it either way. If he remembers than great, if not we’ll fill him in on what he missed. The sooner he finds an anchor the better.”

“Yeah so much for Deatons charm.” Scott sassed. 

Derek smirked, despite working for the man he and Scott agreed on one thing about Deaton. He might be a great veterinarian, but as a druid, he was infuriating.

“It didn’t do much did it?” Isaac muttered sadly.

Derek looked down to see the cat was staring up at him from where it lay on its back, the charm glinting in the light around its neck. The Alpha reached out a hand and let the charm lay in his palm a moment, shaking his head he ran his thumb over the intricate designs along the cool metal. Unbidden his mind going to that heart-wrenching moment when they were told what was happening to Stiles, that he was turning into a Bastili. How Derek had feared what would happen when they told the boy if Stiles would hate them for getting him involved with the pack. Hate him. ‘You should hate me Stiles. Why don’t you? Look at what you are now because of me. I was just trying to protect you-’ the moment his thumb stroked over the center of the charm Derek hissed and dropped it.

“Derek?”

Shaking his head Derek looked down to his finger to see it healing already, whatever the charm had done to him long gone despite the small trail of blood it left behind. Looking over to the Bastili he found it had turned over onto its stomach and backed away from him, hunched down with its belly touching the floor.

“Its okay Stiles...You didn’t hurt me.”

“What happened?” Scott questioned.

Derek shook his head as he told the others while his focus was solely on his thumb and the smear of blood left behind by the wound.  “When my thumb ran over it, it burned.”

Boyd frowned. “It didn’t burn me when I held it.”

Glancing away from the Bastili to the Beta Derek frowned. That’s right, Boyd had handled the charm.

“How could it burn one of you and not the other?” Erica asked confused. 

Derek shook his head. “I don’t know, I wouldn’t think it's possible. We’re both wolves.”

“Uh, guys?”

They glanced to Isaac only to see the boy pointing, following his finger they saw the Bastili had backed itself into a corner. It looked scared as it tried to make itself as small as possible.

“Hey, it's okay.” Derek said as he got to his feet hastily, moving forward towards the corner. The cat hunkered down even more, letting out a small yowl as the Alpha drew nearer. Derek stopped at once a frown morphing across his features. 

“Its okay Stiles. You didn’t hurt me, the charm did and I’ve already healed.”

Derek held out his hand to show that there wasn’t a mark left on him, but the cat turned its head away into the wall, its tail wrapping around it protectively. The pack joined Derek a few feet from the Bastili.

“What's wrong with him?”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Is it hurting him too?”

Terror seized Derek as the question was asked. He hadn’t thought about that, that if the charm had hurt him it might do the same to the Bastili. He took a step forward as if to take the charm back from the skittish beast, but the Bastili flinched and tried to back up more, it was impossible given its size and the fact that it was already in the corner. The action however had Derek pausing again.

“Hey, it's okay...Just let me make sure the charm isn’t hurting you.”

The Bastili tucked its head back against the wall, its ears down.

“He’s scared...Like really scared Derek.”

The Alpha nodded his head. “I know...But if he won't let me near him.”

Isaac frowned and suddenly knelt down onto his knees, the pack glanced at him, but he ignored them in favor of saying. “Pst.”

The cat’s ears flickered and a lone eye pulled away enough to be visible. Isaac smiled and encouraged it. “Come on, you want to take me down right?” The cat tucked its head back into the wall and with it, Isaac’s smile fell.

“That’s not good.” Scott said in a worried tone as he watched the Bastili refuse the boy's offer to play. 

Derek edged forward, only to have to pull back when the Bastili scrambled backward, forcing its body tighter into the already cramped corner. Its claws scraping the stone wall as it tried to get away, leaving deep grooves in the stone. 

“Yeah, that’s really not good.”

Derek frowned, ignoring Isaac’s comment as he stared at the creature that a moment prior had been basking in being petted. This had to have something to do with the charm, he was fine until Derek had touched it. So what had happened when he ran his thumb over it? Derek had felt like he had been cut or burned with silver, what had it done to Stiles? Derek stayed crouched down, only a few feet closer to the Bastili than the others. He didn’t try to get closer to the spooked animal, it would lash out if he did. He had no desire to be on the floor for two hours while the others tried to handle the situation, so he held still.

“Its okay Stiles.”

The Bastili’s ears flickered once more as he spoke, its face remained hidden against the stone wall though. It wasn’t even trying to see the threat near it, it was hiding. It didn’t make any sense to Derek, the last time the Bastili had taken issue with them it had wanted to attack, not hide. Derek watched the shuddering form of the Bastili, it never once peeked out at them. It instead remained curled around itself, a paw on the wall as it arched itself around its own body to hide more in the corner. The tail of the creature was wrapped around its hind legs, the quills flat against its fur. Its best defense was laying flat, unprepared to attack any threats near it. Seeing this Derek called out to the pack.

“His quills are laying flat.”

The pack glanced to Derek before looking at Stiles. Just as the Alpha said, the quills on the cat’s form were either hidden by its fur or laying flat completely.

“Why though?”

“Cause he’s scared?”

Scott frowned and shook his head to Erica and Isaac. “He doesn’t want to use them.”

Isaac looked to the Alpha. “Yeah, but why? Shouldn’t he want to protect himself?”

Scott shook his head once more, pointing out clearly. “ Were not a threat to him.”

Isaac glanced back to the Bastili hiding in the corner. “Then why is he hiding?”

Everyone wanted to know the same thing, but no one had an answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a repeat of the question I wrote in the beginning comments. I need to make a big revision and would like your input. 
> 
> During this first shift of Stiles:  
> Do you want a scene with Chris and Allison? OR Do you want the pack to be solely involved?


	22. Frantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles takes drastic measures to protect the pack from himself, the pack try and figure out what's wrong with the Bastili.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So first off thank you for the overwhelming responses to my question last week. I have heard you all! The pack it is! As such, I'm doing some massive edits, which could delay future chapters, BUT I worked my ass of this week and I'm a chapter ahead so you're all safe this week and next week XD. Trust me when I say that it'll be worth the wait and that's only if I can't find the time to do the re-writes. I'll do my very best not to let you all down. I hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter XD.

When Stiles had felt the change beginning and had fallen to the floor he’d barely had enough time to reassure his friends before his body started morphing into something otherworldly. One moment he was consciously aware, seeing the fur sprouting out of his own arms and his fingers turning into paws with vicious looking claws and the next he was in darkness. 

At first, Stiles had been too damn tired to do anything, to fight to try and figure out where he was or what had happened. He floated in the languid warmth around him and relaxed in the silence. He couldn’t even reliably tell if his eyes were open or closed, it was that dark. He figured they were open though, they felt like they were. It was strange and terrifying to not be able to see his own body. Not even his own hand which he tried desperately to bring to his face. Nothing happened though, his body felt whole, but nothing moved. It just existed. Floating in the warmth and surrounded by nothing but darkness. 

The confusion began to ebb and with it the realization that his first eclipse must be underway. If he couldn’t see anything though...Did that mean he was dead? Had the shift killed him? Seemed pretty anti-climatic to him. The longer Stiles floated though the more his mind fought against that, he couldn’t be dead. He’d seen his own arms and hands changing, so if he wasn’t aware of his own body...Who was? 

The first thought was of the voice he had been hearing or rather feeling, that irksome thing that he could only label as ‘the cat’. His Bastili side he reckoned, but was that what was now in control of him? Was that even possible? Could Stiles get control over it or was he trapped now? The questions spun around his head over and over like a drying machine, tumbling round and round. He had to find some way to gain control. 

An anchor...Yeah, that’s what he needed. The Wolves used an anchor, a thought or emotion to ground himself. What could he use though? His first thought was his dad...Then Scott...Then curly fries, because he was getting desperate. It was supposed to be something important to you right? Something you cherished or loved. So why wasn’t any of that working? Maybe an emotion. He tried to feel confident, to feel brave, but he wasn’t all that surprised when nothing happened. Probably because Stiles felt anything, but that at the moment. Sighing Stiles tried fear, a stupid anchor to him, but what the hell. Again nothing. He tried anger, cause that was what Derek always claimed helped him, Stiles thought it was a stupid thing to hold onto all these years, but what did he know. He wasn’t a Sourwolf like Derek. 

The moment his mind latched onto that, the thought of the surely Alpha who scowled at everybody, but occasionally showed his inner self to them Stiles found himself jerked forward. Some invisible force pulling him. Stiles wondered if Derek was his anchor if it was possible for the surely Alpha to mean more to him than his father or Scott. He didn’t think it was possible, but the pulling sensation was leading him to believe that maybe whatever he felt towards the Sourwolf was enough. 

Stiles was proven right when a moment later the darkness erupted into light and sound and chaos. His head jerked back instinctually at the overload of sights, sounds, and smells all at the same time his eyes caught sight of Derek. The wolf was hissing and holding his hand as if he had been hurt before he could stop himself Stiles was calling out.

“Derek.” The rumbling sound that came from his throat was anything, but those words though and the boy shrunk back in fear when he looked down to see paws, adorned with dangerous looking claws.  ‘OH no...No.’

Looking back up he saw Derek shaking his hand out and Stiles knew, he had hurt Derek. His head jerked about when Stiles saw the other pack members, concern lacing their faces as they came running over. The teen slunk backward, wanting to get as far away from his friends as possible. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, not again. Eventually his backing up had his hind end hitting something solid and he jumped in fright. His head twisting about to see he had backed himself into a corner. Tucking himself more firmly into the solid walls, Stiles looked back to see the pack talking with one another.

‘what did I do?’

It only took a split second before his mind seemed to register his confusion, his question and did something to rectify it. Stiles would have wondered if it was his Bastili’s side doing it if he’d had the time to think about it. As it was, Stiles was forced to watch some sick slide show of the time he’d lost. The time where his beast was in control while he languished in the darkness.

A rush of images, sounds, and smells came to his mind in one forceful blow, he was growling at Derek, attacking the man to the ground and putting his teeth to the man’s neck. The next instant he was attacking Isaac, throwing the boy to the floor and jerking him about as he wrestled to injure the boy who wasn’t fighting back. Then he had his mouth around Boyd’s arm, pulling on it like some kind of sick rope toy. A flash of fear on Erica’s face, on everyone’s face, as he growled and bared his teeth at them. His brain kept jerking him around, one minute he was one place and another he was somewhere else. His foggy memories flipping one after another seemingly without any context or order. 

Stiles found himself pulling on Boyd’s arm, thrashing his head back and forth as the boy gritted his teeth and tried to get his arm back. Lashing out at Scott anytime his best friend drew too close, swiping at him and baring his fangs which sent his best friend reeling backward away from him. Isaac pinned once more beneath him and panting from the exertion of keeping the large cat form far enough away to not go for his throat. All these things were horrible, had Stiles panting not only in fear for his friends but in abject horror for what he’d done. Nothing mattered past seeing Isaac get lashed at with his tail, three quills embedding in the boy's side. The boy's eyes widening as he fell to the ground in a heap, the boy laying helpless on the ground as he loomed above him.

Where were the pack when this was happening? Why weren’t they stopping him? Protecting one another from him? Why would they let him do this to them? Huddling against the wall Stiles tremored as the memories of hurting his friends repeated in his mind. How could they ever forgive him for what he’d done? He was a monster. 

Stiles heard when the pack began approaching him in his corner, he begged them to stay away, to get away. ‘Please...Just go, just go...I don’t want to hurt you.’

They didn’t listen though, they couldn’t understand him. They continued forward and Stiles scrambled to push himself farther into the corner. He stared back at them, his ears down and trembling against the walls, afraid of what he might do if they continued to get closer to him. 

Derek was the first to talk to him, the Alpha offering a trepidated smile as he said.“Hey, it's okay.”

Stiles hunkered down even more, letting out a small yowl as the Alpha drew nearer. Stiles was relieved when the Alpha stopped coming closer, he didn’t care if it irritated the man as it appeared too. Stiles just didn’t want to hurt him.

“Its okay Stiles. You didn’t hurt me, the charm did and I've already healed.”

‘You’re lying, I know I hurt you, I hurt all of you.’ Stiles flinched as the Alpha’s hand came closer, no doubt the man was trying to show his lack of injury. ‘You heal...But I still hurt you. I still hurt you.’

Stiles turned his head into the wall, refusing to look at his friends any longer. He couldn’t see the looks on their faces any longer. Just knowing he had hurt them, that they were worried about him even after what he’d done. It made him sick. Stiles tightened the grip on his tail around his legs, tucking himself in tightly against the wall. He could hear the pack talking, his ears flicking about without his say so at the noise.

“what's wrong with him?”

There was a distinct pause before Derek answered. “I don’t know.”

“Is it hurting him too?”

At the sound of someone moving again, drawing closer Stiles forced himself even smaller, compacting himself into the corner and walls around him. Stiles begged for them to stop.

‘Please go away, please...Just leave me here.’ All that came forth were more horrific worbels and yowls rather than the words he so desperately wanted to say. Stiles sighed in relief when the person who had been trying to get closer stopped, finally they were listening to him. Finally, they would be safe from him. Stiles was surprised when Derek spoke once more to him, his head peeking out to stare at the Alpha just for a moment.

“Hey, it's okay...Just let me make sure the charm isn’t hurting you.”

‘You’re lying...I’m not the one who’s hurt, who was hurt. Just please stay away Derek. All of you, stay away.’ Stiles tucked its head back against the wall, its ears down.

“He’s scared...Like really scared Derek.”

‘Of course, I am, look what I did, look what I tried to do.’

“I know...But if he won't let me near him.”

‘I won't, you’re never getting near me again...I’ll go to Eichen house before I let this happen again...I’ll beg Chris to put me down...I won't hurt you or anyone else. Never again.’

“Pst.”

Stiles' ears flickered at the sudden noise, turning his head to where a single eye pulled away from the wall enough to glance back at them he froze at the sight before him. Isaac was smiling at him as he was knelt down on the floor, the Beta calling out.

“Come on, you want to take me down right?”

Stiles tucked his head back into the wall, unable to take the sight of his friend offering himself up for further attack. Shifting his body to press against the stone walls, anything to get further from them. Further from hurting them. How could Isaac put himself in such danger? How could he willingly set himself up to be hurt again? Shuddering Stiles tightened his body, though the shuddering didn’t go away. Absentmindedly he heard Scott speak up next and wanted to cry.

“That’s not good.”

‘How could me attacking Isaac be considered good Scott? How could you let me do that? You promised me no one would get hurt and now your all offering to be mauled by me?’

The short silence was abruptly encroached upon when he heard someone try to get closer again. Stiles' head jerked back to see Derek trying to edge closer and without a second thought Stiles nearly climbed up the wall, his claws dug into the stone as he twisted about to try and get further into the corner despite his size. Sending shards of stone falling from the deep grooves his claws made. The Alpha froze though when he moved too fast and Stiles cried out in relief.

‘Please Derek, please stay there.’

“Yeah, that’s really not good.”

Stiles ignored his friends' rebuttal to his actions, he stared only a moment longer at them to make sure none of them were going to be so foolish as to approach him before he curled in on himself once more. ‘Please...Go away.’

Derek didn’t heed his wishes, but the Alpha didn’t move any closer and Stiles was eternally grateful for that. Stiles heard the man shift a bit, but he knew Derek wasn’t getting closer. Most likely he was just getting comfortable.

‘Don’t stay, don’t stay...Go please just go.’

“Its okay Stiles.”

Stiles' ears flickered once more as Derek spoke, his face remained hidden against the stone wall though. A brief moment later the Alpha made the observation.

“His quills are laying flat.”

‘Why wouldn’t I keep them like that? Why would I want to use them, Derek? I never want to use them again, I never want to see the look on someone’s face like Isaac had. He-he couldn’t move. He couldn’t fight back.’

The arguing of the pack that proceeded was mostly ignored by Stiles, he didn’t care what they thought of his quills laying down. He wasn’t going to use them, and if he was able to find a way he’d rip them all out and make it so they never came back.

“Why though?”

“Cause he’s scared?”

“He doesn’t want to use them.”

‘Never again.’

“Yeah, but why? Shouldn’t he want to protect himself?”

‘Never...I wasn’t...I wasn’t protecting myself when I hurt you all.’

“Were not a threat to him.”

‘And that’s the problem...I could have killed you all and you haven't done anything to stop me have you? You didn’t even fight back all that hard...You should have...You should have put me down.’

“Then why is he hiding?”

‘Cause I’m a monster.’

Stiles kept himself hidden in the corner, refusing to look back at the pack that he knew were staring at him. If he could wait them out until sunrise...He could change back and go see Chris...Or Deaton, maybe the vet would be able to help him. So long as the pack kept their distance everything would be fine, he could take care of things. Anything to stop him from being a threat to his friends, he wouldn’t let something like this happen again.

 

**********

 

It had been over two hours since the Bastili had freaked out over the charm. The cat was still hunkered down in the corner, refusing to look at them unless they moved and the sound caught its attention. Even when it did look it was just to verify they weren’t getting closer before it hid his face once more. They’d each tried to tell the Bastili it was okay, that he wasn’t in danger and that they wouldn’t hurt him. The cat’s ears were nearly invisible in its dark mane, plastered so tightly to its head that it was a wonder it could hear anything at all with how clearly it seemed to want to block them out. 

Erica sighed as she glanced at her phone, wondering not for the first time how much longer they had to wait before Stiles was returned to them.

“How long?” Isaac asked in a quiet voice. 

They’d found that the more noise, the more jittery the Bastili got, so they’d all taken to lowering their voices in the hopes that maybe the Bastili would adjust and calm down. He never did though, the cat remained as tight as a bowstring despite their best efforts. 

Erica glanced to her pack mate and said. “We’ve got another four hours until sunrise.”

Derek nodded his head as he continued to watch the Bastili. He’d tried to run it all through his head a dozen times, to try and figure out what had triggered such a volatile reaction. Nothing seemed to come to mind, he’d latched onto the same beliefs as the pack at first. That maybe the charm had hurt him too, but the cat wasn’t reacting like it was in pain and with all the shifting around it had done Derek had seen its chest. The charm laying docily against its fur, no sign of anything wrong with the cat. So with that disproved, Derek wondered if his reaction to the sudden pain and sparked something in it, if whatever bond he’d started as its Alpha had broken somehow...But that couldn’t be either if it had the cat would be lunging at them instead of hiding. Nothing made sense and it bothered the Alpha greatly that he didn’t know what he could do to make things better.

“Do you think he’ll change back right after sunrise?”

Derek sighed.“I hope so...It should be instantaneous since he’s not experienced.”

“Yeah.”

Nothing else needed to be said about that, they all wanted Stiles back. Wanted to know if he remembered anything and if he was okay.

Stiles heard them talking, the pack conversing about him shifting back. It wouldn’t matter how swiftly he changed back, that wouldn’t change what he’d done. Wouldn’t fix what was apparently wrong with him, even Scott hadn’t lost himself so much as to hurt anyone and Scott wasn’t always the most in tune with things. Sure he’d had slip-ups, but he’d never chewed on peoples arms or threatened to tear their throats out like Stiles had done and what did that say about him? 

That Stiles hadn’t only gone nuts and attacked Derek, but also Isaac and Boyd. That he’d scared all of the pack, threatened to hurt them all on numerous accounts. How he’d lashed out at his best friend for seemingly no reason. Stiles shuddered as he thought about all that could have gone wrong, the things he did were bad enough but the things he might have done were so much worse. What was truly terrifying was that the pack wouldn’t have stopped him, not in time anyway. They were so caught up on him being Stiles, that they hadn’t even defended themselves against him. 

It was with that dawning thought that he realized that they weren’t going to see things as they were. As they truly were that had Stiles realizing that he had to be the one to figure things out, all on his own. They’d pacify him with kind words of not being hurt, of them being able to heal and forgiving him for his horrid actions. They’d brush it all aside to coddle him and tell him he’d do better next time. Stiles shuddered again, next time he could kill one of them. What if next time he did? What if he hurt them...Or a human? A human wouldn’t heal, his dad wouldn’t heal. Panting at the thought of what devastating, what fatal things he could do if he lost it again. If the Bastili in him took control, one small slip up, one mistake. Someone dies. Shuddering as he panted for breath as his chest heaved, Stiles mind roiled around the prospects of waking up next time to something worse, to some unknown carnage that the Bastili would reek while he was in the darkness. While he couldn’t stop it.

Lifting his head up for the first time in hours, Stiles let himself look at the pack. The majority of them were huddled together farther back as if they wanted to give him his space, Stiles knew it wasn’t for their own benefit so much as his. Only Derek was closer. Boyd and Erica were leaning against one another, a brief flash of Boyd’s arm being in his own mouth had the boy twisting his head away from the pair of werewolves. Isaac was sitting crossed legged next to Scott, the two of them were talking quietly. The brief image of Isaac fighting against him and then offering himself up for attack had him shuddering. Stiles’ eyes ratcheted onto Derek’s as the Alpha stared back at him. Had he been staring this entire time? A part of him wanted to joke, wanted to call him a creeper wolf, but he couldn’t. Stiles couldn’t joke, not knowing what he’d done. What he almost did. Stiles averted his eyes once more from the Alpha, making sure his head movements were easy going and belittling the stress he felt. 

Stiles looked around the loft casually before staring back at the wall as if he hadn’t found what he was looking for. He hoped his actions would fool Derek, that the Alpha’s instincts wouldn’t give the man any clue as to what Stiles had planned. What Stiles needed to do in order to keep everyone safe, he wouldn’t let the Bastili inside him hurt them or anyone else ever again.

‘Never again.’ With that silent promise to himself, Stiles did what he knew would be the best thing for everyone. Stiles pressed his forehead against the stone wall and breathed a moment.

‘Forgive me, please forgive me.’

Taking one more deep breath, Stiles lifted his head up and looked back out into the loft. Nothing had changed, the others were still glancing his way periodically as they talked quietly to each other. Derek refused to look away. Not giving himself another moment to back out of his hasty plan, Stiles launched himself off of the wall he’s been pushed up against. His powerful back legs springing him forward a good ways. The pack jumped at the sudden movement, and Derek made to get to his feet in case the Bastili was going to attack. Stiles did nothing of the sort, he darted past the Alpha, giving him a wide berth and jumped over the railing of the staircase, running up the winding steps to Derek’s bedroom. Idly Stiles heard half of the pack sigh as he ran up the staircase.

Erica’s voice muttering. “He’s probably going to hide in your closet again.”

Stiles didn’t know what she meant by that, he couldn’t recall the Bastili hiding at all, but he shrugged that off as he could also hear Derek coming up the stairs after him, he had already made it to the foot of Derek’s bed. The bed itself was pushed up against the only window in the bedroom, the only exit. Stiles glanced back at Derek as he got near to the top of the stairs, the Alpha pausing to look at him.

‘I’m sorry.’

Derek frowned as he saw the cat standing at the foot of his bed, it turned to stare at him. The green eyes watching him, but a moment later his eyes widened when the Bastili made its move.

“NO!”

The Bastili jumped onto the werewolves bed and leaped at the window, glass shattered easily at the weight of the cat. Raining down alongside the animal as it landed on its feet, any normal day Stiles would have found the ability to land on his feet like that after falling two stories amazing. Today it was just a necessity, Stiles didn’t look up as he ran. He knew Derek would give chase, especially now that he was loose in the woods. The pack would be close behind as they registered the man’s cry and the sound of breaking glass. So without hesitation, he ran as fast as his four legs were capable of into the night, into the woods. 

 

****************

 

Derek knew he had shouted when he realized what the Bastili was intending to do, but some part of him had thought the creature would listen. It was stupid, the cat had been acting different since the incident with the charm. It didn’t even bat an eye as it jumped onto his bed and leaped through the glass of the window. Derek raced forward, his hands falling to the window seal as he looked down, just barely catching sight of the Bastili as it disappeared into the forest.

“Derek what happened!” Scott raced to the other side of the bed and the other side of the window. He looked out into the night but saw nothing. “Please tell me he-”

“He’s gone.”

“Shit!” Scott raced back towards the stairs, not bothering to go all the way down as he shouted. “Stiles got out!”

The pack were racing up the stairs to see for themselves the giant gaping hole in the glass of the window.

“Oh god...He-he jumped.”

Derek nodded his head at the surprised voice of Erica even as he continued to stare out into the night as if Stiles would just come back. “He landed on his feet and took off into the woods...We have to find him.” Turning back to his pack he warned them. “If someone sees him if he hurts someone.”

They nodded. If Stiles hurt someone the argents would have to act accordingly, the peace between the pack and the argents had to be maintained and the only way to do that was for the pack to step aside and let Stiles be put down if he harmed someone.

“He’s going to shift back soon though right?” Isaac asked nervously, he turned to Erica.

“We're going to find him before anything happens, it doesn’t matter what time he shifts back. Now let's go!”

The pack nodded and followed Derek as he leaped out the window to follow after the Bastili. The werewolves shifted before they hit the ground and were off running, scenting as they ran. The scent of the cat leading them through the woods as they got further and further from the loft. 

“Where would he go?”

“Who knows, he’s not even him right now. He’s probably just following instincts.”

There was a brief respite before Isaac questioned. “And those would tell him to do what?”

Derek shook his head. “We follow his trail, it will lead us straight to him. It won't matter what he’s doing.”

“Unless he’s mauling someone.” Scott muttered sourly. Derek glare at the other Alpha, but Scott just retorted.“You know the rules, Derek, we stop him or Argent does.”

Neither Alpha saw the look of pain cross Isaac’s face, Erica did though. She reached out and patted his shoulder, getting the boy's attention as they ran.

“He’ll be okay, nothing’s going to happen.”

Isaac swallowed and nodded as he kept pace with the pack, they ran for at least a mile before they came to a small stream. Jumping across it they frowned, the boy's scent was faint, not at all as strong as the other side. Looking to each other a moment in confusion Scott swore gaining their attention.

“Stiles knows about scents, water covers a persons scent.” He waved at the stream. “He’s probably walking in the center of the water to stop us from tracking him.”

Derek frowned at the Alpha. “Stiles isn’t the one in control though.”

Scott nodded his head as he agreed with the older werewolf. “He’s not, but our instincts, our inner wolves. They learn from us right? What Stiles knows, it knows.”

Derek scowled down at the water, he wasn’t sure if the Bastili and Stiles were that closely linked but Scott could very well be right. “Come on.”

The pack ran along the stream, three on one side and two on the other, making sure that if the Bastili left the water they’d find his trail again. It was as they were running more and more that Erica brought to their attention.

“Guys.” They looked to her and she pointed, looking to where she was pointing the wolves eyes widening. “He’s heading into town.”

“Shit.”

“Where would he go? Is he going where Stiles would go?”

Scott glanced to Isaac as if the Beta’s words had sparked something in him.“His dad!”  Scott took off, leaving the pack to race after him.

“Scott we don’t know if-” Derek shouted only to be cut off.

Scott shook his head. “I know, but I’m not going to chance things, I’m heading to his house to make sure.”

Derek yelled out at Scott as the wolf pushed himself faster, heading to the right to cut through the woods to get to the Stillinski home faster. “Call if you find him, don’t try and take him on.”

Scott yelled back. “I’ll do my best, but I’m protecting his dad first. It’d kill him if he did something.”

Derek nodded and wished the wolf luck before joining the Beta’s in following Stiles scent trail. As the stream diverted to the left, Stiles scent headed forward. Straight for the outskirts of the east part of town. Coming out of the woods they paused for a moment to inhale the boy's scent trail. Once it was solid once more they took off.

“Do you think Scotts right and he’ll head home?”

Derek shook his head. “I’m not sure, it would make sense if Stiles was the one in control...With the Bastili guiding him though...He could go anywhere.”

 

***************** 

 

Stiles knew he had a good lead on the wolves, soon the gap between them would grow larger. Stiles was smart, all the time spent with the pack had taught him loads of things. He’d learned how to make himself easier to find and likewise, he knew how to make himself harder to find. So his racing into the town was a great tactic. The smells of the city would detract from his own scent and make it naturally harder for the wolves to find him. He weaved in and out of places that held no meaning to him. Back alleys and climbing over fences of back yards. He jumped and climbed up things to create gaps in his scent. He brushed up against trees and cars. Anything to give a moment of distraction to the pack. It was cruel to play on their abilities, but he needed to buy more time for what he had planned. 

Assured that he had given himself at least a little more time, Stiles made for the only destination he had planned when he entered the city. He crouched low and hid well in the bushes, making sure no one was lurking nearby to see him despite the late hour. Once he was sure he was alone, Stiles scaled the side of the house and effortlessly walked along the top of the roof to the bedroom window. 

Stiles looked in with his bright green eyes, they cut through the darkness as if it was broad daylight. The lone figure was asleep in his bed, oblivious to the monster lurking outside his window. Stiles pressed a paw against the glass, trying to let the man know that he’d thought of him. That he was one of the reason’s he had to do this, to keep him safe. Lowering his head Stiles rubbed his head against the window frame before he tore himself away. He couldn’t linger here or he’d be caught, what was worse is Stiles knew if he lingered too long he wouldn’t be able to tear himself away. One last glance into his father's room and Stiles jumped from the roof to continue on his mission.

‘I love you, dad. I’m sorry.’

Stiles picked up the pace as he ran from this childhood home, wanting to get some distance between the familiar area. Stiles made sure to spread his scent around and leave plenty of gaps as he darted here and there throughout the town. It was a long trek with all the weaving he had to do, but it was well worth it to confuse the pack. Stiles knew that they wouldn’t give up searching for him easily which meant he had to play on one of his many strengths. Being an annoying little shit. 

As he came to the other side of town, Stiles became more cautious. He knew that soon he’d be entering dangerous territory, that this was the area he would be most likely to be caught. Stiles made sure to stay just far enough away to not trigger the alarms he knew to be lurking there, he was placed just right to have himself be noticed, but no so to get anyone coming after him. Stiles circled the perimeter a few times, ensuring that his scent was spread about before darting back into the woods. He had a lot more work to do if he wanted to be able to sort himself out on his own time. If Stiles was to manage that he needed to throw the wolves off his scent. He pushed himself further away from the town, deeper and deeper into the woods.

 

***********

 

Scott was panting something fierce, sweat pouring off of him as he pushed himself faster than he’d ever run before. The threat of his best friend hurting his own father driving him to get there in time. To stop anything that might happen. By the time he’d reached the end of the block, cold fear grabbed his chest. Stiles scent was all around him.

“Fuck.”

Running down the street, Scott prayed he wasn’t too late. He saw the house in sight, coming closer and closer until he came to stand below Stiles window. The cat’s scent was all along the house, without pausing to think about it Scott leaped up onto the second level and grabbed a hold of the window ledge. Sniffing he found the boy's scent wasn’t on his own window. Frowning he closed his eyes and followed the lingering scent, his head twisting to the right. Opening his eyes they widened the sheriff’s window. 

Cursing once more Scott scrambled across the roof and crashed to his knees outside the man’s bedroom. He was about to beat on it with a fist when he paused, his hand stuck in the air as his eyes caught something. A paw print. Leaning down the Alpha frowned at the sight of it, it belonged to a very large cat. Stiles. Looking through the window he saw the sheriff sleeping soundly. If Stiles had come all this way and even pushed on the window enough to leave a print, why didn’t he break in? Why leave the sheriff alone when he was obviously alone and unguarded. A perfect target. Looking down at the paw print he sniffed again and found a concentration of the boy's scent rubbed against the window.

‘Cats rub to mark their territory...And loved ones. Spreading their scent to claim something.’

Scotts eyes widened, Stiles was marking his dad without marking him physically. He...He knew. Stiles recognized his dad but he couldn’t because it was the Bastili who was running from them. Frowning the Alpha thought a moment, the Bastili had started acting differently after Derek messed with the charm. The charm meant to focus Stiles into finding himself. Shaking his head when he wasn’t sure how that would play into the Bastili wanting to claim Stiles’ father. Giving the sheriff one last look, he leaped back to the ground and fished out his phone. Scott didn’t hesitate or feel guilty as he dialed the number. A tired voice came on.

“Hello?”

“Deaton. The charm you gave me and Derek, it was supposed to focus Stiles right?”

He heard the man yawning. “mmm...Yes. Help his mind find its anchor, to help Stiles gain control.”

Scott nodded his head, that what all of them had assumed it was for. “Right, but nothing happened...Not at first, Derek was messing with it and it burned him...Stiles...The cat started acting funny afterward. Is there any way-”

“Scott?”

“Yeah?”

“When was Derek messing with the charm?”

Frowning as he didn’t see the relevance, but answered regardless. “When it was around Stiles' neck, he put it on a cord and put it on him.”

There was a brief silence before the man’s tired voice came through. “Ah, yes I see and Derek was playing with it while it was attached to Stiles.”

“Yeah, why?”

The vet hummed before stating. “If the charm wasn’t working on its own, then Stiles’ will was subdued by the Bastili inside him. This could have happened for any reason really, Stiles might have even allowed it subconsciously.” The vet mused aloud in a tired voice.

“what's that have to do with-”

“Everything.” The druid cut in shortly before the confused teen could waylay his explanation. “The Bastili was in control and Stiles didn’t have enough willpower to take back control. The charm was meant to focus him, but if he couldn’t focus on his own, he needed some help. Derek must have been thinking about Stiles when he touched it. Sparking the innate magic in the charm and pulling Stiles back to control.”

Scott shook his head. “Then why did he freak out?”

“What do you mean?”

Swallowing stiffly, Scott told the vet about the cat’s behavior after Derek had played with the charm, how it hid from them and then broke out of the loft.

“So you're tracking him now?”

“Yeah, I came to his house and...He left his scent here, left a paw print on the window. He was watching his dad sleep but he never tried to enter the house from what I can see...What's going on with him Deaton? Is he okay?”

The vet hm’d at that. “I can only speculate that the change was too much for him. As to why he decided to leave the safety of the pack house, I don’t know. Perhaps he wished to see his father.”

“But he’s not here anymore.”

“Yes, there is that...Did anything negative happen while he was not in control?”

Frowning at the grass Scott shook his head as he answered the vet. “Negative? I-no.”

The boy's unsure response had the druid pushing for answers. “Nothing? No one was scratched, or bit, no one was paralyzed?”

Scott froze as the words finally triggered a response. “He...He paralyzed Isaac, but it was an accident. He’d been wrestling with Boyd and Isaac came up behind him and scared him.”

“I see.” The man sighed.

“Deaton?” The teen cautiously questioned the man, a lump forming in his stomach.

The vet sighed but instead of giving the boy answers requested more for himself. “When he was wrestling with Boyd and Isaac...What do you mean?”

Throwing his free hand up in the air Scott gritted out. “I don’t know, wrestling man, he was tugging on Boyd’s arm like a tug of war and throwing Isaac to the ground in some giant bear hug.”

“Was he using his mouth?”

“Yeah.”

“So when he was playing with them, with Boyd perhaps...Was he biting Boyd?”

Shaking his head Scott replied. “No, he never broke the skin.”

“Interesting. Was this the only instance of...Play?”

“No, he played with Isaac the same way...More aggressive though I suppose, but Isaac was laughing. No one got hurt.” Scott implored the druid to understand, nothing bad had happened. 

There was a lengthy pause before the vet told the Alpha. “Scott, when Stiles came back into possession of his own body when the charm pulled him forward. He could have gotten memories of the time he missed.”

“Yeah so?” Scott shook his head as he paced back and forth, he needed to know what was going on with his best friend. His nerves were shot by now and he just needed answers so he could find Stiles and bring him back home.

“They might have been fragments, highlights if you will. Clips of time out of sequence most likely. Things the Bastili thought its other half needed to know.”

Nodding Scott said. “So Stiles knows about joking around with us, Deaton I don’t get the point here.”

The vet sighed in an annoyed fashion as he was forced to explain further. “Scott, the memories are fragments. They aren’t whole, how do you think Stiles would react if one of those fragments showed him attacking Boyd. Grabbing his arm like that and pulling on him? Or roughhousing with Isaac? Taken out of context and without the full memory to branch his opinions off of, it would look as if he was attacking would it not?”

Scott’s eyes widened when it all finally clicked. “He thought he was attacking us.”

“I believe so.”

Glancing back to the Stillinski house he frowned. “Then why did he come here? If he’s worried about attacking people, why come see his dad?”

“Stiles is aware that he has full control now Scott. However, if he is believing that these fragments are depicting his assaults on you and the pack to be the truth. He might very well fear losing control again, attacking someone again.”

Looking up to the sheriff's window Scott frowned. “Yeah..I-I guess I can see that...Understand that, but it's not true. He didn’t hurt anyone. Never even broke the skin with any of us.”

“Yes, I hear you, Scott. Stiles, however, is working with incomplete information at the moment. He is acting on this fear of harming the people he loves.”

Frowning again Scott asked. “Acting on?”

Deaton didn’t reply right away, which did nothing for the growing anxiety Scott was beginning to feel. “Scott, if Stiles believed he was a threat, that he was hurting someone he cared for. That he could possibly hurt his father or you and the pack again. What would he do?”

Scott opened his mouth to reply but froze. Closing his mouth he scowled and thought about that a moment. What would Stiles do? His mind didn’t know the answer to that particular question, but it did pull up the memories of the countless times Stiles had put himself directly in danger for the pack. Ignoring the danger to his own life to save others. How he had told him that he’d keep Scott human when he feared he was losing himself to the wolf just under his skin. How he’d promised not to let Scott hurt anyone. 

“He doesn’t care what happens to him, so long as he protects people.” The teen stated softly, more for himself than Deaton.

“That is something that I have long since noticed about the boy, but in this instance, if he was the something that was hurting others, even if it is a lie, a perceived truth of his mind. What would he do?”

Scott sucked in a lung full of air as he raised his head, his eyes wide. “He’d stop himself.”

“How?”

Shaking his head Scott told the vet in a ramble, his mind a jumbled blur of all the things his best friend could possibly do. “He’d go to someone who he thought could do something about it, who would know how much of a danger he could be” Scott swallowed painfully as his mind fell down the rabbit hole. “But he can't ask him, so-so he’d find another way to get what he wanted.”

“The argents” it wasn’t a question, just a statement of fact.

“Yeah, Chris knows how dangerous a Bastili is to humans...If-if Stiles acted crazy...If he threatened Chris or Allison-”

“Then Chris would protect his family.”

“I have to go.”

“Good luck.”

Scott ended the call and took off running towards the argents house. It was all the way across town and he knew Stiles had a head start. He dialed as he ran.

“pick up...Pick up...Come on Derek...Pick up damn it, we have to stop him.”

 

*************

 

Derek and the Beta’s were following the winding trail through town when the Alpha called them to halt and pulled out his phone.

“Scott?”

“Stiles...Stiles is-”

Derek frowned at the other Alpha’s panting. “Is he at home?”

“No, he’s long gone man.”

Frowning Derek asked. “Where are you?”

“I’m headed to the Argents, you need to head there too.”

Scowling Derek snapped his fingers and started running, the Beta’s falling into line behind him.  “Why do you think he’s going there Scott?”

“I called Deaton, I found Stiles scent here at the house...He was watching his dad sleep. He never went in the house though, I didn’t understand why he’d come all this way and not go in so I called Deaton to ask if he knew anything.”

Nodding as he ran Derek asked. “Alright, does he know-”

“Deaton said the charm worked...But only after you touched it. You were thinking of Stiles, right? When you touched it.”

Scowling at the notion of Deaton guessing that, the Alpha admitted. “If I was?”

He heard Scott snort. “Whatever man, the point is that is what pulled Stiles back into control of his own damn body. Problem is when that happened his mind and the Bastili’s swapped stories. He got fragments of time from the Bastili.”

Running around some cars as he and the pack raced towards the argents home Derek responded. “Alright, what do those fragments have to do with him running off?”

“Derek, they weren’t complete memories. Literally fragments of time out of order. Deaton said that it's probably what started all of this, Stiles saw him fighting against us man. Chewing on Boyd’s arm or throwing Isaac to the floor. Paralyzing him. He didn’t see all of it though, just the bad parts.”

Cursing Derek shouted back. “So he thinks he hurt us? That he attacked us?”

The Beta’s turned and looked at Derek with a frown as they ran. Derek pressed on, not bothering to answer the unspoken questions as he continued talking with Scott.

“Yeah, he thinks all those play sessions were attacks. That he was trying to kill us or whatever. That’s why he ran off dude. He went to his dad’s to see him one last time.”

“What?!” Derek growled as he heard Scott pant into the phone as he jumped over something before he caught his breath. “He’s going to get himself killed by hunter man! He’s gonna fake Chris out and have him end him. He’s trying to protect us and everyone else.”

Derek's heart seized as he ran in a series of panting breaths, his voice coming out strained. “He’s got a head start on us...Did you call Chris?”

“No, I called your dumb ass. I’m almost there. So you call Chris and try and waylay the execution squad alright.”

“Run faster Scott!”

Derek clicked the phone call off and dialed as fast as he could, ignoring the Beta’s that were demanding answers from him as they ran. The phone rang and rang. And rang.

“Come on...Damn it, Chris...Allison someone fucking pick up”

Isaac perked up at the name of his secret girlfriend. “What’s Allison have to do with this?”

Growling Derek ended the call and redialed as he shouted. “Stiles went to the Argents, he thinks he’s dangerous so he’s going to get Chris to shoot him.”

Isaac paled, stumbling a bit as he ran. Boyd’s firm arm shot out and dragged him along. Nodding to the larger teen he caught his feet once more and fell back into the pack’s pace. Derek was cursing under his breath as he listened to the phone line ring over and over again.

“Shit, nothing...No one’s answering.”

Running faster than they ever had before the pack were still a ways off when Isaac suddenly started scrambling with his pockets.

“Isaac, run man.” Boyd called out, the Beta shook his head and came to a stop as he fidgeted. Derek halted and growled. “Isaac!” The Beta pulled out his phone and started dialing. “I already tried-”

The Beta didn’t miss a beat as he shouted. “You tried Chris. Not Allison!”

Derek scowled at the Beta. “How do you have her number?”

Isaac shook his head at his Alpha as he started to run once more. Derek kept pace with Isaac, wanting to know if the young hunter would answer.

“Allison? Allison you there?”

“Isaac? What the hell’s going on...Dad’s-”

“Its Stiles okay, it's Stiles and he’s not a threat. He’s lying. He’s faking. Tell your dad not to shoot him.”

“What?!”

“Allison just do it please!”

“O-Okay okay.”

Isaac ran with the pack all while listening to the footsteps of his girlfriend running in her own house. He heard the sudden yell of Chris shouting at Allison, but the words were lost on him. Pulling the phone back he slammed it on speaker for the rest of the pack to hear. They could hear Chris shouting and Allison shouting back, trying to get her father to listen.

“Dad...Dad stop! It's Stiles.”

“Get back Allison, get in the house!”

The pack nervously listened as the hunter and his daughter argued. Allison was screaming at her dad to listen to her, to put the gun down. The exchanges grew more heated, Allison shouting for her dad to not go towards the fences, while Chris shouted back for her to go back inside. That he was armed and she needed to stay out of the way.

“Allison! Allison!” Isaac cried into the phone, trying desperately to get the girls attention. 

Derek growled as he listened to the chaos on the other end of the phone. The shouting that had been exchanged was faded now like Allison was holding the phone by her side and not at her ear anymore.

Derek growled as he snatched the phone from Isaac’s hand, shouting into it. “Chris don’t you dare shoot him, don’t you dare!”

“Get back!” Came the angry shout from Chris once more, a gunshot rang out suddenly freezing the wolves in the middle of the street. Their eyes wide as they listened for any sign that Stiles hadn’t just been shot. The line went dead.

 


	23. So many trails to follow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles' plan doesn't pan out as he had hoped, the pack continues the search for their lost pack mate and the search is interrupted when the threat of Stiles having hurt someone becomes a reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go folks, we get to find out what Stiles' master plan was and how effective or not, it was. I hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter, leave a comment or kudo if you do, I love hearing from people.

Scott ignorant of what had happened on the call between Derek and Allison, raced towards the Argents. His lungs were aching with how fast he’d been running, the sharp breaths of air he took hurt but he refused to stop or slow down. The Alpha could see the iron gates that lead into the Argents house, the gravel road he was running up bringing him closer and closer to the hunting families estate. A flashlight beam was off to the left of the gates, Scott immediately went towards it. Sliding to a halt when he heard a gunshot. No. Growling Scotts eyes flared as he took off once more, eating up the ground in his haste.

Chris turned swiftly, his flashlight and gun trained on Scott the moment he heard the noise. The Alpha came to an abrupt halt, his beta shift on show.

“Where is he?!”

Chris scowled back at the youth. “I don’t know.”

That seemed to stump Scott as the boys shift faded, a confused look on his face. “What? I heard a gunshot.”

Chris snorted, showing his gun. “I wanted to keep him at bay, I know he’s out here Scott. What’s going on?”

Scott shook his head, there was just too much to explain. “Have you seen him?”

“Not personally, my cameras did. He’s been circling the house.” The irritation in the man’s voice did little to intimidate the Alpha as Scott glanced around as if he could suddenly spot his friend because of what the hunter had told him.

“Scott, what is going on?”

“He...He ran away from the loft, he’s confused.” Scott met the man’s eyes. “It’s really messed up, but he’s not going to hurt anyone. He’s faking everyone out.”

Chris didn’t seem convinced, his retort backed that up. “Scott, he’s stalking my property.”

“I know.” Scott whined. “But he went home, he didn’t even enter the house Chris. He just scent marked his dad's bedroom and left. He was coming here to get you to shoot him, he’s scared.”

That had the hunter lowering his weapon a bit. “Scared of what?”

“We think that Deatons little charm kinda backfired on us, he only got some of the memories when he took control...He saw things out of order, out of context. He thinks he attacked us when he was just playing, he never hurt any of us.”

Chris gave a silent nod, listening intently all while his eyes scouted out the woods surrounding his property. Allison stood behind the iron fence, only a few feet away from them. Her own gaze flitting around in the hopes of catching sight of the cat.

“And he came here...”

“To get you to shoot him, he’s scared that he’s really going to hurt someone.” Scott reasoned.

“And getting me to shoot him would accomplish what?”

Scott growled when the hunter didn’t understand. “He didn’t  just want you to shoot him, Chris, he wanted you to put him down!”

Chris froze, his gaze sweeping back to the Alpha, his mind immediately going towards the treaty the pack and he had together. “I haven’t seen him, only the cameras. I fired the shot in warning.”

Scott nodded when he grasped where the hunters head had gone. “I know, but he’s gotta be here right? Somewhere.”

Chris nodded. “Somewhere.” There was a lot of ground around his place, he only had cameras so far out and if the cat was waiting for a moment to strike, he’d have plenty of places to take advantage of.

“Come inside.” The hunter urged the wolf. “We’ll take a look at the camera feeds and see if we can’t narrow down where he is.”

Scott gave a relieved smile, nodding he followed after Chris. Entering through the iron gate and watching as Chris secured it behind them. The slow walk towards the house was filled with silence, the Alpha’s gaze sweeping around the property in some vain attempt to locate the Bastili. He found nothing.

Entering the Argents house was surreal since his previous visits, but Scott did his best to shake away those memories as he followed Chris into his study. There was an alcove that showed all the security cameras. The man was leaning over the controls, flitting each camera around to try and locate the stalking cat. Chris frowned when on a full rotation they saw nothing.

“Where is he?” Scott leaned closer to the screens, searching again as Chris sorted through them all.

“He’s not there.” Chris murmured before shaking his head, he pressed the rewind button until the Bastili appeared, some twenty minutes ago. He pointed at the screen where the cat appeared. “There he is, that’s the last sighting the cameras seem to have picked up of him.” Chris turned to regard the wolf. “I think he moved on.”

“Why? He could jump the fence right?” He waved his hand towards the fence shown on the screen. 

“Probably, but I don’t think he intended to come onto the property Scott.” He pointed towards the screen where the cat was last seen. Pressing play to watch as the cat stalked off into the woods. “He never came back into shot Scott, I think he went back into the woods.”

“But where? I-I thought he was coming here to get you-”

Chris shook his head, despite what the distraught teen might think, the hunter believed there was more at work here. “I don’t think it was that simple.” The hunter pushed his chair back and stood up, turning to the confused Alpha. “I think he was leading you guys on.”

Scott huffed earning a frown from Chris. “He’s been doing that the whole way here.” Scott elaborated. “He spread his scent all over town, through the woods...Everywhere.”

Chris couldn’t help but chuckle. “There you go, he’s leading you on. Trying to get space between you guys, I don’t know why Scott...But I think Stiles has a good reason for it.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Scott muttered. “He’s being an idiot.”

Chris smirked. “I’ll keep an eye out alright? He shows up on my cameras again I’ll do my best to keep him here until you guys can come round him up.”

Scott sighed, giving a nod. “Thanks.” Chris patted him on the shoulder as the pair walked back towards the front door.

“Just remember that we have-”   
Scott groaned. “Keep the peace, I know.”

Chris gave the teen an rather put out look, but didn’t lecture him on the importance of their treaty. The hunter didn’t believe that Stiles was actually a threat, not now that he knew the boy was actually in control of his shift. Still, it was best if things were all out in the open. 

“You’re not alone anymore.” Allison said drawing their attention as she peered out one of the front windows, pointing. Scott could see the pack coming to a stop before the Argent’s gates, he nodded to Chris before opening the door. He made short work of the gap, coming to a stop opposite of Derek.

“He’s not here, I was wrong.”

“His scent-” Erica started.

Scott shook his head. “Just like the town and the woods, he was leading us on.” The scowl that formed was pretty obvious as to what the Alpha thought of all of that. 

“The gunshot?” Derek growled.

Scott sighed. “Chris did it to keep him at bay if he was still around, but he was already long gone by what the cameras showed.”

“What did his camera’s actually show?”

“Caught him stalking around, but he went back into the woods. Chris said he’ll keep his eyes peeled for him.”

Nodding Derek moved aside so the wolf could exit the Argents property, making sure the gate was secure behind him the pack stood there a moment. Stiff as boards as they tried to figure out what to do now. 

“Should we follow another trail?” Boyd asked curiously as he gazed off in the direction of one of the scent trails.

“We have to.” Derek mused. “We need to bring him back to the loft before sunrise.”

“Or he’ll be naked in the woods.” Erica mused with annoyance.

“That and he’ll undoubtedly be weak from it.” Derek pointed out. “This is his first shift, you all remember how that felt.”

The wolves nodded, they could distinctly remember the increased strength of the wolves coming back to bite them in the ass come morning. All that power took a toll when you weren’t used to it. 

“Split up, Scott and Isaac go south, Erica and Boyd go west. I’ll go north.” The pack nodded, breaking off into their teams. “Call if you find him, we don’t know what he’ll do if we catch up.”

“He wouldn’t hurt us.” Isaac rallied.

“No.” Derek agreed. “But he doesn’t need to hurt you to make you lie down.”

That had the pack nodding, Stiles had more strength than they did when it came to subduing the other party. A single quill of his and they would be down for the count while he would be free to run off again. 

“Let’s go.” Scott nudged Isaac and took off in the appropriate direction, the blonde hot on his heels. 

Erica and Boyd nodded to Derek before turning and running off, leaving Derek to stand there before the Argents gate for a moment longer. Sighing, Derek made his way into the woods. He was going to kill Stiles when he found him, the stupid teen had no clue just how worried they’d all been about him. 

 

********

 

Stiles panted, he’d been running for over two hours now, after circling the Argents property a few times he’d taken to weaving in and out of the woods. Creating many different paths, hell if that wasn’t tiring. Then, of course, he had to split off onto another path just to escape them all. Now he was tired, his fast pace slowing the longer he walked. The fast lope of his coming to a crawl of steady footsteps, Stiles walked through the woods wondering where he should go from here. 

He just needed some time, he’d figure himself out soon enough. Stiles was sure of that, once he had better control over the Bastili side of him then he would feel it safe to return. For now, he needed to rest and then he’d get right to it. Figuring out how to tame the wild side of himself. 

Stiles found a small outcropping of large stones, jumping up onto one he found a comfortable spot and laid down. He almost felt like he was a part of lion king with how he was able to survey the woods from above. Stiles huffed in amusement before laying his head among his paws, his eyes closed as his body quieted. His breath slowing after such a long journey and his aching muscles relieved for not having to carry him any further. Stiles let out a breath, he’d rest for a bit and then he’d take back control.

 

********

 

The pack hadn’t found Stiles, the many winding paths that the teen had created were deep in their ability to shroud the cat's scent. They went for miles before realizing that the boy's scent was diluted too much to be the real trail. His jumps over obstacles, through water and brushing against trees, was all enough to waylay them from his real path. Frustrated the pack texted one another, finding themselves coming together in a hollow in the woods. They were all sweaty, tired and frustrated.

“I’m tagging him.” Isaac panted. “GPS tagging him.”

The others nodded, not in the least bit bothered by the prospect of such a thing. Not after the last few hours. The sun was rising, the night was done.

“He’s gotta be human now right?” Erica panted.

“He should be.” Derek muttered as he caught his breath, shaking his sweaty head a moment later. “He’ll sleep for a while, he’ll be too tired to do anything else.”

“So we should keep going.” Scott rallied. “He’ll be too tired to lead us on, we just gotta cut through all the false trails.”

The pack looked at him, they wanted to do nothing but that, but they were all exhausted. Derek as much as he hated to do so shook his head. “We won’t be able to find him if we’re too tired to use our own senses Scott. We need to rest.”

Scott looked tiredly towards Derek, begging the Alpha to not give up.

“We’ll find him.” Derek promised the other Alpha, he wasn’t about to give up on that. “We’ll head back to the loft, get some rest and start over.”

“We have to tell his dad.” Scott reasoned. “He’s going to call me...I can’t just say that he’s sleeping it off. What if someone sees him?”

“I don’t think he’ll go back into town.” Derek replied.

“Yeah.” Isaac nodded. “He did that so he could see his dad and push us towards the Argents.”

Scott sighed, resigned he followed after Derek and the others. It was a slow journey back towards town. None of them felt overly optimistic about their current inability to find their missing packmate. They felt as if they’d failed him, failed Stiles in keeping him safe. 

The pack made their way slowly to the loft, crashing the moment they got there. Erica, Boyd, and Isaac fell on top of each other in the spare bedroom. Scott had refused to join them, staring out the window tiredly.

“Get some sleep.” Derek urged him while he tiredly climbed up the stairs to his own bed. “Go lay down.”

Scott nodded, though he had no intention of doing so. He needed to find Stiles and he had no idea what he was going to do when the Sheriff called him later that morning. Idly he just hoped that Stiles was safe, where ever he was.

 

*******

 

Stiles opened his eyes, surprised to find that it was well into the day. He had slept far longer than he anticipated, but that kinda made sense with all the running he’d done. Sitting upright the teen glanced around himself, all was quiet in the woods and there didn’t appear to be any sign of someone finding him. Letting out a relieved sigh, the teen looked down at himself. He stumbled off the rock, crashing into one below with a meaty oomph before falling to the ground. Shaking his head Stiles took a shuddering breath, his eyes once more cast downwards to make sure. Yep, totally still a cat. Fuck.

‘I was supposed to change back right?’ Getting to his feet Stiles shook himself out, unsure what to do now the teen had to reason with himself that the whole point in coming all the way out here was to gain control. Made sense that he’d do that as a Bastili, right? Looking back up to the rock face that he’d been using as a bed, Stiles abandoned it in favor of walking around the base of it. Rubbing on it a few times to spread his own scent, marking it as his territory to ward off any other predators. Stiles paused when he got all the way around it, tilting his head before huffing. It wasn’t like there was anything around here that could take him on, even as inexperienced as he was Stiles knew his quills would down anything that tried to mess with him. Also, this wasn’t his home so why was he marking it? 

Shaking his head, Stiles wandered off to find some place in the woods to try and gain control over himself. The first thing he should master was his shift, right? If he could control that then he could learn to control whatever else came with it, namely whatever maiming instincts he apparently had. Stiles shuddered at the memory of attacking the pack, pushing it past it swiftly so as not to let his mind wander on all the ‘what if’s’ 

Stiles found a small area that was relatively clear of debris, satisfied with his little training ground the Bastili sat down on his rump. Stiles sat there for a good five minutes before huffing, this was harder than he thought. Thinking solely of being human again hadn’t gotten him anywhere, that lead him towards trying to find some kind of anchor...Again nowhere. 

Stiles tried every imaginable ploy to get him back to his human form, over an hour went by with no progress in sight. Stiles slid to the ground in a huff, blowing out a heavy sigh that stirred up dirt.

‘I’m stuck.’

Stiles hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself, but he was definitely stuck. Stiles tried not to think about the terrifying possibility of him being stuck like this forever. He had to turn back sometime right? It just wasn’t possible that he would be trapped like this the rest of his life. No, he had to find a way. Surely there was some way, he just needed to figure it out.  Straightening himself out once more Stiles gave a nod and continued his attempts to change back into a human. 

 

*********

 

The pack had gotten a few hours sleep, once more awake they were preparing to go and search for Stiles when Scott's phone rang. They all froze, the Alpha himself stared at the device in horror, he knew who that was. Walking numbly towards the device, he picked it up. Staring at the caller ID for only a moment longer before answering, he ignored the blatant stares he could feel from the pack.

“Hello sir.”

“Scott, how did things go? Is he alright?”

Scott winced, this was going to be one of the hardest things he’d ever had to say to someone, least of all his best friends father. “He shifted.” That was a rather lame retort, they all knew that Stiles was going to shift.

“And?” The sheriff pressed. 

“And he was getting used to us...Well some of us, he seemed to have some vendetta against me for some reason.” Scott frowned at the floor even as he spoke.

“Vendetta? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know sir, he just didn’t like me around him...Doesn’t matter, he was getting on with Isaac and Boyd well enough. He was listening to Derek too, which is good cause we weren’t sure if the whole Alpha thing would work on him and-” Even Scott could realize that he was rambling, but that didn’t mean he could stop himself. Luckily, the sheriff was able to do that for him. 

“Scott.”

“Yeah?”

“What happened?”

Scott froze, that same tone of voice the sheriff always used when he knew they’d done something stupid was once more being used against him. It made him feel like a seven-year-old kid getting caught by the sheriff all over again.

“He-He ran.”

“Ran? I thought he was going to stay indoors with all of you?”

“That was the plan.” He admitted freely.

The sheriff was silent a moment before he asked in a trepidated tone. “You didn’t intend for him to go running outside did you?”

“No sir.”

“And you didn’t let him out did you? He let himself out.”

“No sir...Yes sir.”

“Where is he? I want to talk to him.”

Scott winced even as he fought to say. “He never came back inside.” He waited to hear what the sheriff would think about that.

“Scott...Where is Stiles?”

Swallowing the bile that threatened to come up further, Scott replied. “I don’t know.”

“Scott!”

The wolf winced. “I know, I’m sorry...He ran off and we’ve been trying to find him, but he made so many trails and it’s really hard to get through them all. He went into town to see you and the Argents, but then he ran off into the woods and we’ve been tracking him since.” The Alpha was basically panting as he relayed all that had happened. Scott jerked in surprise when Derek pushed him aside, grabbing the boys phone.

“Sherrif.”

“Derek?”

“We’re going to find him.” He promised the man.

“Derek, what...Why would he run off like this?”

Derek sighed. “He was confused, we’ll sort it out. We’re going to find him, we’ll bring him back to the loft. We’ll call you when we do.”

The sheriff let out a shaky breath. “You call me the moment you have him back.”

“I will.” The Alpha assured the worried man.

“Go-Go find him.” The line went dead.

Sighing, Derek turned and offered the phone back to Scott. “We need to find him, the sheriff wants us to call as soon as we do.”

They all nodded, the pack headed towards the loft's door. Derek met Scott’s gaze though the other Alpha was acting submissive to himself. “We’re going to find him Scott.”

“I lost my best friend Derek.”

Derek snorted. “You didn’t lose him, he’s off wandering the forest...Most likely naked and utterly lost.”

That brought a small smirk to Scott’s face. “What an idiot.”

Derek nodded as he ushered the younger Alpha out of the loft, he didn’t have to tell the pack twice. “Follow the trails, stick together.” He looked to all of them before sighing. “He’s going to be...Bare.”

Erica wrinkled her nose before pushing past them to go back into the loft. The boys turned to watch her, Derek frowned at the Betas sudden departure. They all snorted when she came back with a pile of blankets. Tossing some to the others.

“I do not want to see that.” She growled at all of them.

The boys shrugged, they didn’t particularly want that either but they’d do whatever they had to in order to bring Stiles home. Derek placed the folded blanket under his arm before addressing the pack. “Go to where you last left off, follow the trails until they end and backtrack to the other ones. We’ll narrow it down to the real path soon enough, he won’t be able to make new tracks.”

“Not naked and barefoot.” Isaac muttered.

“Exactly.” Derek nodded. “He can’t run from us anymore.” 

“Let’s go.” Scott pulled away, nodding to Derek before waving to Isaac. The blonde jogged to catch up to him and the pair walked into the woods. Erica and Boyd watched them go before turning back to Derek.

“Good luck.”

Derek gave a nod before watching them head in the other direction, it would take a while to cut through the woods to where they had been but it was the easiest way to get back to the scent trails that Stiles had left behind. Huffing at the notion of another few hours of tracking the wayward teen down, Derek entered the woods and went in search of the missing teen.

 

*********

 

Stiles basked in the heated rays of the sun that cut through the forest, it was at the very least relaxing and after an entire morning of failure this was just what he needed. No matter how hard he’d tried, there didn’t seem to be any way for him to turn back. Frustrated and out of options the teen had laid down in the sun, a bit of rest might help him relax enough to facilitate the change. Or at least that was what Stiles was hoping for. The whole point of wandering into the woods was to get the opportunity of learning to control his shift, safely away from others, but he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t shift to begin with. 

Letting out a great huff of air, the Bastili closed its eyes and let its mind wander away from the stressful situation it found itself in. The forest was peaceful, quiet, only the small sounds of animals scurrying in the forest floor and birds chirping reached his ears. His tail thumped on the ground lazily, the motion itself was calming. Stiles stretched himself out, rolling onto his back a moment later to stare up at the blue sky above. His paws tucked in against his chest as he bared his belly to the sky.

‘What a mess.’ He reasoned. ‘This was supposed to be so much simpler, the pack was supposed to protect themselves and keep me in line...I should have known better. They’d never agreed to do that, hell, Derek had flat out told me no.’ Stiles growled at that, that all of this could have been avoided if Derek had just listened to him in the first place. Now, look at him, trapped in a damn cats body all after having hurt his friends. Stiles knew it wasn’t strictly Derek’s fault that he was stuck, but he did blame the Alpha for not putting a stop to his reign of terror. 

Sighing Stiles rolled over and climbed to his feet, quickly shaking out the debris that might have clung to his coat. He wandered around the area a bit, needing a change as his thoughts whirled around what he should do now. With nothing of real consequence to do the teen figured he could scout out the area a bit, he doubted that any of the pack had come this far out. Part of the reason why Stiles had left so many trails, backtracking only to make new ones over and over again to confuse their senses. It was easy to break off from another to find this little haven. He hadn’t heard or scented any signs of the pack, but Stiles wasn’t exactly sure how intense his senses were compared to the pack. 

The teen wandered away from his little pride rock, merging into the woods. A leisurely stroll eating up the ground as Stiles found one of the nearby hiking trails, it was pretty far out from town but Stiles supposed that was part of the appeal. He’d followed it towards his little haven so it made sense to follow the same scent trail before breaking away to explore. It would lessen the chance of the pack finding him. He’d managed to go quite a ways down the trail when Stiles paused, his ear flicking when he heard something strange. His head shifted in the direction of the sound as his eyes narrowed, despite knowing it wasn’t a good idea to wander towards some unknown sound, he did just that. 

Sound radiated in a forest or at least that was what Stiles found, the sound he’d been tempted to find didn’t prove to be right where he assumed it would be. It was a further mile that he must have traveled down the trail, he had just come to a halt when he heard something else, it wasn’t what had sparked his interest to begin with but the previous sound had disappeared so there was no reason not to investigate the new one. He never got a chance to investigate the new sound as the new sound came to him.

Frowning Stiles turned, his hackles raised when he saw the cougar which had been silently stalking him through the bushes to his left. Stiles’ quills standing on end despite his inherent fear of such a predator, luckily for him the instincts of the Bastili had him on the offensive rather than just cowering in fear like a human would do. The cougar was roughed up, there was blood on its mouth and claws. It was plain to see that it had killed if not maimed something. Stiles wasn’t sure if he’d just stumbled upon the creature after its kill, but he had no intentions of fighting with it.

‘I’ll just be going now.” He huffed, backing up a bit in preparation of turning to leave. The cougar didn’t appear to agree with that as it came closer a deep growl radiating from its throat.

Stiles growled, a warning for the beast to back off. The cougar didn’t get the memo as it prowled forward its own deep growl coming forth as the two cats hissed at each other. Stiles swiped at the cougar despite it being too far away to actually hit, he had no intentions of actually fighting the damned thing but he wasn’t about to let it get a claw into him either. 

Stiles movements didn’t seem to go over well with the cougar as it lunged forward to swipe at him, Stiles moved but the beast’s claws landed a shallow hit to his shoulder. Hissing at the other beast Stiles batted out at it, never landing a blow. They circled one another, Stiles was prepared to defend himself now, his shoulder ached from where the cougar's claws had bit into him. It might have only been a graze but it stung and now he was getting pissed off, how hard was it for the damned cat to just go away? He yowled back at the animal, his fur puffing up just as his quills remained erect. 

The cougar surprised him, as it circled around before it pounced once more. Stiles yelped as its claws sunk into his hip before the beast seemingly fell aside him from its impromptu attack going sideways. Stiles twisted at once his own claws finding purchase before he could stop himself, pulling back sharply Stiles lowered himself to the ground. A whine leaving his throat as he looked upon what he’d done. There were quills in the beast's neck from where it had attempted to gain purchase upon pouncing on him. That had paralyzed the beast, seeing it slumping from him before Stiles had attacked the already collapsing beast. Now, the cougar lay paralyzed, bleeding to death from where Stiles’ claws had ripped into its collar. Stiles yowled at the dying animal.

‘I’m sorry...I’m sorry, you were-You were hurting me and I'm sorry.’

Stiles skirted back, startling when he crashed into something else, he jerked around before his brain could stop him. His claws tearing away whole chunks of the tree's surface. Stiles panted, his eyes staring at the damage he’d cause all because he’d been surprised. His mind instantly called forth the image of paralyzing Isaac, of his claws were so powerful to have easily sliced into the Beta. Stiles turned and fled. 

 

*********

 

The pack wasn’t having much luck, each group had gone their separate ways in the hopes of locating the Bastili. None had been able to find him, though they were sorting through the misleading trails one by one. Sooner or later they’d find him.

Scott sighed when his phone rang, Isaac came up short to give him a pitying look. Scott shook his head, fished out his phone and answered it.

“Sir, we still haven’t fo-”

“There was an attack.”

Scott froze, his heart beating faster as his very blood went cold. “W-What?”

“A predator took down a cyclist in the woods.” The pain in the sheriff's voice had Scott shaking his head, there was no way. Just no way, he looked towards the sun before frowning. “H-How long ago?”

“Two hours.”

“It couldn't have been him.” Scott let out a relieved laugh. “It’s day, he’d have changed back hours ago.”

“Scott...It was a large cat, my deputy is good with these kinds of things. The wounds, bite marks and scratches...It was a cat.”

Scotts earlier assuredness of Stiles innocence wavered. “It couldn’t have been him sheriff.”

“Have you found him?”

“No.” He admitted sourly.

“Scott...I don’t have a choice if there’s a...Predator like this, one that’s killed it’s automatic. We send in a team to take the animal down, I can’t waylay that...Not even for him. If it wasn’t him you gotta find him.” The sheriff urged.

“I will, but sir...You know he wouldn’t do that.”

“I know.” The sheriff paused. “But-Just find him.” The line went dead.

Swallowing repeatedly, Scott looked to Isaac and in a dead tone of voice said. “A big cat...Killed a cyclist.”

Isaac shook his head. “No, it wasn’t him.” Isaac hissed.

“We gotta find him, the sheriff's department has to send in a team to find the animal responsible, if they find Stiles first-” He let it hand even as he turned his attention to his phone to dial Derek.

“We gotta hurry.”

 

********

 

The pack was notified, each party urged to search frantically in their section of the woods. They had to locate Stiles first before the sheriff's department was keyed in on the supernatural cat's presence.

Meanwhile, Stiles had skirted his way back towards his little hollow, curling up tightly between two of the large rocks to better hide himself away from the world. Stiles was bleeding, the pain from his wounds negligent compared to the guilt he felt. Sure the cougar had attacked him first, but Stiles could have easily run away. Why had he stayed? Why stand his ground against some cat when it would have been so easy to turn around and leave? None of it made sense and it was driving him insane. 

Stiles was no closer to controlling himself than when he first came out here, worse, in fact, considering he’d no killed a living creature. Thoughts of learning to control his shift had long since past as he stayed hidden, all he wanted now was for the earth to swallow him whole. Stiles whined as he set his head on top of his front paws, he refused to look back and tend to his wounds. Somehow knowing that he’d heal sooner or later, the burn of them just another reminder of what he’d done. 

He’d killed.

 

*********

 

After being informed by Scott as to what was going on, the sheriff's department entering the woods to start searching for whatever predator had downed the cyclist, Derek ran to intercept. If he could find the animals trail from the scene of the attack he could rule out Stiles or at the very least try and keep everyone away from him if he proved to be in the area. Derek knew in his heart that Stiles wouldn’t have harmed anyone, so long as he was the one in charge no one had anything to fear. 

It was the slim chance of the Bastili having taken back over that had a sliver of doubt in the back of his brain. It took him twenty minutes to catch up to where the sheriff's department was, the deputies were surrounding a sheet covered body. Derek ignored the deceased in favor of getting to the sheriff, Noah waved off his deputies as he pulled Derek aside.

“Did you find him?”

“No.” Derek shook his head, his gaze going to the deceased a moment before assuring the man. “I’m going to pick up the trail of whatever did this.” He gave the man a solid look. “If I can find the cat responsible, we can make sure that no one else gets hurt and no one finds him.”

Noah nodded. “You’re sure it...It wasn’t him.”

Derek shook his head. “Stiles wouldn’t do this.”

“You’re sure it wasn’t Stiles?”

Derek didn’t have an answer for that, instead choosing to ask. “Give me a head start.”

Noah gave a solemn nod. “You got ten.”

Derek pushed past the man, taking off down the trail as he caught the scent of the dead cyclist's blood. He followed the trail that was left behind by the predator. Each step he took had Derek praying that he’d find no proof of Stiles, the teen would never forgive himself if he had been the cause of a death. Not to mention what it would mean for their treaty with Argent, things would get messy fast if that was the case.

Shaking his head, Derek scented the air as he ran. Following closely to the blood trail, it was as he rounded a tree that the Alpha came to a screeching halt. His breathing was fast from the running he’d done, his heart pounding away in his chest even as he stared dumbstruck by the sight before him. It was a cougar, Derek realized. Stepping forward towards the dead animal, Derek frowned. Its throat had been ripped into but before he could focus on that his eyes focused on something else. Quills. Kneeling down Derek carefully plucked a quill from the beasts hide. Definitely, Stiles, looking past the weapon the Bastili had used against the cat Derek wondered what all had happened. 

He could tell from the scent alone that the cougar was responsible for the cyclist's death, the man’s blood was all over the cougar but there was another scent, fresher than that. Stiles. Derek growled as he took in the Bastili’s scent, blood, the cougar had hurt him and Stiles had protected himself. Maybe not intentionally but he had, knowing that he couldn’t leave any proof Derek carefully pulled the remaining quills from the beast. Standing up he stared at the animal, the sheriff's department wouldn’t like the fact that the cougar had been killed by another large predator, that would set them too far on edge. 

Throwing Stiles’ quills far into the underbrush, before moving towards a nearby tree. Breaking off a large branch from the tree, Derek snapped it at an angle to provide a sharp point. It was easy from there to alter the wounds on the cat all while simultaneously spreading its blood onto the makeshift murder weapon. The Alpha was eternally grateful for all the lessons he had from his family members about trapping animals, he used the spear-like weapon to rig up a simple yet effective trap. One that could make the wounds on the cougar with ease and dissolve any hesitation by the deputies of something else being afoot. His work done Derek pulled out his phone quickly dialing the sheriff.

“I found it.”

“Stiles?”

“No.” Derek shook his head. “A cougar.”

“A cougar.” The man seemed surprised but also relieved, Derek didn’t hold it against the man to think poorly of his own son at a time like this. “It’s dead.”

“Did-”

“It’s dead.” Derek replied not wanting to go into any detail about what had truly caused the animals death, it had already killed someone. It would have been put down either way. “Follow the trail east for about a mile or so, you can’t miss it.”

“Wait...Derek, how did you...Take care of it?”

“You’ll see.” Derek hung up, not wanting to beat around the bush now that one issue was taken care of. Leaving the dead cat behind, Derek scented the area in the hopes of locating Stiles. The cat might be crafty in hiding his scent trails, but he was bleeding. Not much Stiles could do to stop that, smirking when he caught the Bastili’s scent Derek ran up the hill. He was getting close to finding Stiles, he knew it.

 

**********

 

Noah sighed in relief as his deputies tagged the creature and wrote down its description, he knew it was going to match the marks on the cyclist and at that moment felt guilty for ever assuming the worst of his son. Eternally grateful for Derek and the pack, the sheriff helped tidy up things. He’d need to make the call to the deceased’s family, not something anyone enjoyed doing but at least he’d be able to assure them that the animal responsible had been put down. Moving down the trail, he inwardly hoped that Derek managed to find Stiles and soon. 

 

********

 

Stiles opened his eyes, something was drawing near. His maw opened to growl, but he silenced himself before he could utter a noise. He didn’t want to give himself away, but his teeth stayed bared. His ears twitched when he figured out what he was hearing, footsteps and oddly enough a heartbeat. Never before had Stiles been able to hear something so unique, a steady rhythm that denoted the life it was for. Stiles hunkered down in his small hollow, snarling a bit as the wounds that were still healing were tugged on by his movement.

His eyes focused when debris from the forest floor was kicked up right before a set of boots came into view, surely he was too low for anyone to be able to see him. His hollow too dark, all Stiles had to do was remain quiet until whoever it was went away. No need to reveal himself, to possibly hurt anyone else. 

Licking his nose, the Bastili’s piercing green eyes glared at the legs a few feet in front of it. Stiles’ tail twitched in the dried leaves he was laying on, the quills quivering in preparation for an attack despite Stiles not wanting to use them. Stiles jerked back, a throaty growl leaving him when the legs became something more. Stiles bared his teeth, hissing in an attempt to send the other figure away. Stiles should have known better, but he was desperate at this point.

Derek snorted at the Bastili’s threatening visage, he could see how it had holed itself up in the crevice of the rocks. He might not be able to reach him, but there was no way for Stiles to leave except through him.

“Knock it off Stiles.” He was at the end of his patience now that he’d found the teen.

Stiles continued to growl, baring his teeth in the vain hopes that Derek might take the hint and leave him be. It didn’t work.

Derek stayed crouched for a moment before shaking his head, ultimately deciding to sit before the opening of the little cave Stiles was hiding in. He glared back at the cat that was glaring and hissing at him. Derek exhaled deeply when the teen refused to cooperate, observing the glowing green eyes that were narrowed back at him.

“We’ve been worried.”

‘Go away.’ Stiles raised the volume of his own growl.

Derek continued despite the increased noise the Bastili put off after having heard him. Choosing to relate to the teen what all had gone on in his absence. “Scott was out of his mind, barely slept last night.”

Stiles hissed.

“We crashed back at the loft for a while before heading back out here, your trails were...Well, you did a good job.”

‘Not good enough.’

Derek continued to stare emotionlessly at the cat, who for all intense and purposes wanted to claw his eyes out. It was as he stared at the creature that he came to a realization, one that didn’t make him happy. “You never shifted back did you?”

‘No.’ Stiles admitted despite Derek not being able to understand him. Though he was wrong about that seeing as his growling tapered off when he had been asked the question.

Derek nodded. “Stress most likely.”

‘I already tried the whole zen bullshit...Didn’t work’ Stiles hissed, his tail thumping against the rock wall he was shrouded in.

Derek sighed, he didn’t appear to be getting anywhere but he wasn’t about to turn his back on the teen. He knew Stiles wasn’t in the mood to listen let alone behave himself, if given the chance Derek knew Stiles would try to run again. 

“Deaton’s charm didn’t work the way it was supposed to.” He mused, staring off to the side rather than at the hissing cat. “You only got parts of the story Stiles.”

The cat’s growl raised in volume, but Derek ignored the threatening behavior. “You never broke skin, not once.” Derek twisted his head back around to stare at the green eyes that were glaring at him. “You were playing, the Bastili was playing. It was rough, but it wasn’t malicious. Hell, you gave Isaac and tongue bath.” Derek snorted.

Stiles wasn’t sure what to think about Derek’s assurances of what had transpired the night of his transformation, part of his urgently wanted it to be true but another part of him feared this was the Alpha’s attempts to get him to come back to the loft. Stiles bared his teeth, twisting his head away sharply and dismissively.

Derek shook his head at the teen's display. “I don’t know what you saw, but you never hurt anyone.”

‘Liar...I paralyzed Isaac. I had to have hurt them, you...I wasn’t in control.’

Derek stared at the Bastili, its head canted away from him. He didn’t appear to be getting anywhere, but he wasn’t about to just give up not after finally finding the teen. “You’re hurt.”

‘No...I’m not. I’m just peachy so you can go now.’

“I can smell the blood Stiles, that’s how I found you. The Cougar.”

Stiles tensed, yowling as it pulled on his hip. His head rounded to growl threateningly at the Alpha, his teeth fully on show and not in the least bit submissive.

Derek frowned at the display, unsure why the teen was so sore about that. “You killed it.”

Stiles’ face slackened the cat curling into itself. Derek sighed. “It killed a cyclist further down the trail...You didn’t kill an innocent animal Stiles.”

Stiles shuddered, even knowing what the cougar had done it still bothered him how easy it was for him to kill. He’d barely done a thing and the cat had died at his feet, how easy would it be to kill someone?

“Can I see your wounds? You should be healing but...”

Stiles huffed, he was not about to parade around for the Alpha’s amusement, he could take his licks. He deserved them after all, innocent animal or not Stiles had been the reason the cat had died as it did. 

Derek sighed, Stiles wasn’t making this easy. The Alpha was torn on what to do, he could call the pack and bring them all here but he had some inkling that it would get them nowhere. Stiles was already shutting him out, having the rest of the pack there might overwhelm him further. Shaking his head, Derek made the call. 

“Be quiet for a second.”

Stiles shifted a bit to glare out of his hollow, a deep rumble started in his throat upon seeing the wolf holding his phone. Derek growled back, superseding the cat's own vocalization. “Knock it off Stiles.”

The cat hissed before falling silent, nodding Derek dialed and pressed send. Putting the phone to his ear all while glaring the Bastili into submission.

“I took care of the cougar, the sheriff's department is taking over everything else. Any luck finding Stiles?” Derek hummed, his eyes watching as Stiles glared back at him silently. Obviously in on the fact that Derek hadn’t outed him just yet. “No, alright keep me posted. I’m heading further up the trail. Bye.” Derek placed his phone back in his pocket before looking back at Stiles.

‘Why’d you do that?’ Stiles questioned with a grumble.

Derek arched a brow at the cats more demure noise, when Stiles didn’t do anything else Derek relaxed where he sat. Prepared to wait however long it took for the teen to start being more amenable towards a conversation.

Turns out that took a lot longer than Derek was anticipating, he’d thought that the teen would grow bored but Stiles just stared at him. Anytime Derek moved the beast would growl and bare its teeth but otherwise, it remained silent. Silent and glaring.

“Do you plan to stay out here another night?”

‘If I do? What are you going to do? Nothing, because if you touch me you go take a nap.’ Stiles hissed.

Derek huffed. “Why not just come back to the loft? You can just as easily stake out someplace to glare at us.” Derek growled when the cat lashed out a clawed paw at him, not coming close to hitting him but a clear warning. Derek bared his own teeth, a deep growl forming in his chest. “Don’t.” That was the only warning he gave to the teen.

Stiles hissed back at him before huffing, Stiles canted his head away rather than fully submit to the Alpha. Laying his head down on his front paws, prepared to wait out the Alpha who seemed intent on lecturing him.

“They’re worried about you.”

‘Go Away.’ Stiles growled. ‘I’m doing this to protect everyone you idiot.’

Silence once more reigned in their small little world, Derek content if not a little annoyed to stay seated in front of Stiles cave and Stiles more than prepared to wait out the Alpha. Stiles had closed his eyes, prepared to take a nap all while riding out Derek. Sucked that the Alpha wasn’t too keen on that idea, Derek called out to him.

“Have you healed?”

‘No.’ Stiles growled. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’ Truth be told Stiles was pretty sure that the wound was doing better. Far faster than any human or normal creature would be at this point, after all, it’d only been an hour or so. Still, he understood on some level what Derek was pestering him for. 

Stiles canted his head around when he heard Derek shift about, the Alpha had spread himself out a bit more. Leaning his right side against the boulder before the opening to Stiles’ cave. Sprawling his legs across the opening and making a nice little trap in case the cat decided to try and leave if his guard was down. Stiles wasn’t initially sure why that was until he saw that Derek had leaned his head back, his eyes closed.

‘Sourwolf is tired huh?’ He supposed that made sense, they probably had been looking for him like the Alpha had said. And sure Stiles did feel horrible about that, it was just that he’d intended on getting the hang of things before putting anyone else in jeopardy. Now, staring at the tired Alpha, Stiles just felt more guilt for all he’d put them through. Stiles watched on silently as Derek fell to sleep, oddly enough being able to tell by how the wolfs heartbeat slowed. It was kinda cool to notice such things and Stiles found himself listening solely to the wolfs heartbeat as he laid there.

Stiles knew that another of the pack would stumble upon them sooner or later and Stiles wasn’t looking forward to that, but he had his cave and it wasn’t like they could pull him out by force. Not if they didn’t want to end up paralyzed that is. 

Derek had been asleep for an hour or two before Stiles finally had the urge to move. He’d been cramped in the small hollow for a while now and despite it being comfortable the urge to clean his wound was grating on him. Stiles could feel the tacky blood, the fresh sliding sluggishly over the old. Both matting down his fur as his skin tried to heal, it was utterly disgusting but Stiles needed to do something about it. 

Giving an annoyed huff, Stiles slowly climbed to his feet. He grimaced as it pulled on his hip, he gave a small limp as he moved forward, hugging the ground as he came to the entrance of his hollow. Stiles looked at Derek carefully, the Alpha was asleep, the man’s heartbeat told Stiles so. With a nod to himself, Stiles carefully, ever so carefully stepped over the man’s legs, giving a small hop with his hindquarters to clear the man’s legs without alerting him. Stiles inwardly smiled to himself on a job well done. Looking around the teen wondered if he should just try and make a break for it, but something told him to stay. Whether that was because Derek was seemingly unguarded while he slept or because this place was...His. He wasn’t sure, either way, Stiles couldn’t part from either, though he did make his way up to the top of the rocky outcropping.

Laying flat on the stone he curled around himself and gently began lathing at the wound. Tending to it with the sandpaper texture of his tongue to clean out the drying blood and bits of debris that had been smeared into it from his time laying on the ground. It stung to have his tongue gliding over the open wound, but it also gave him this weird calming sensation. Stiles continued his ministrations, intent on cleaning the healing wound while Derek slept ignorant below.

 

***********

 

Scott and Isaac had come up empty-handed, all the trails they’d taken ended up leading them to nothing. They looped back around to the same starting position near the Argents house, it was as they stood there frustrated that Scott muttered.

“We have to find him before someone else does.”

Isaac gave a nod, his eyes flitting towards the house a moment before realigning on Scott. The Alpha didn’t seem to notice, to caught up in his own head. Isaac sighed, he wanted to find Stiles just as much as the rest of them but it was obvious that what they were doing wasn’t working. There had to be a better way of finding the Bastili, though Isaac could think of nothing.

The pair turned when footsteps greeted them, Boyd and Erica appeared shaking their heads. Scott growled a moment, the Beta’s didn’t take it to heart knowing the Alpha was just as frustrated as them.

“Where’s Derek?”

Isaac answered when it appeared that Scott wouldn’t. “He called, he went to cut off the search for the cat. Turns out it was a cougar, he took care of it and went further up the trail to try and find Stiles.”

Erica sighed. “So no luck all around.”

Isaac shrugged. “Seems like it.”

“He has to be somewhere!” Scott shouted, startling the pack.

Isaac sighed, giving Erica and Boyd a look that spoke of how long he’d had to deal with the other teen's outbursts. Erica smiled wanly back at him.

“Maybe we should head back to the loft?” She asked cautiously before adding. “None of us have eaten anything and we still have a lot of ground to cover.”

Scott seemed wholeheartedly against it but was cut off by his phone ringing. Sighing he pulled it out, dreading another conversation with the sheriff but faithfully answered it.

“Hello sir.”

“Any luck?”

“No...But we’re going to keep looking.”

There was a sigh on the other side of the line, it made Scott wince as if the man had been shouting at him. It was almost worse or so Scott thought. “Go home kid.”

Scott’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Go home, get something to eat and sleep...Derek told me you’ve all been out running on steam. Stiles will be okay.” The way the man’s voice shook told Scott that the man was worried but he was still holding it all together. “So go take care of yourselves, we’ll find him.”

“Sir he’s by himself an-”

“Scott. You gotta do this for me because right now I don’t know where my son is, so please. Do as I ask, go get some sleep, eat something and then we’ll tackle this together. I get off at seven, I’ll come to help you all then.”

Scott deflated under the man's request. “Alright, yeah...We’ll see you then.” Scott hung up and looked defeated. “Come on.” He led them away from the Argents house, headed once more back to the loft empty-handed. Isaac glanced over his shoulder as they walked away, there was no sign of either of the Argents. Twisting about the blonde caught up with his pack, some food and rest would do them all some good. 

“Who’s going to call Derek?” Erica questioned, her gaze locked on the back of Scott's head.

“You can.” He stated weakly. “He should come back too since nothings been found.”

Erica winced at how the other Alpha sounded, was it anything other than Stiles she might give him a kick to keep him going. With it being Stiles, she remained silent and dialed the older Alpha’s number.

“Hey, we’re headed back to the loft. Stiles’ dad called, he wants to meet up after he gets off from work to come to help us search for Stiles. You should come back and get some food.”

Erica frowned when Derek spoke back to her calmly. “ I’ll catch up with you later, I’m going to talk with Deaton about some things. Try and keep the sheriff out of trouble alright?”

“Sure...Are you sure?”

“Yes.” The Alpha didn’t elaborate further which left Erica to sigh.

“Alright, let us know if you find anything out.”

“I will.”

And just like that the call ended, Erica huffed as she put her phone away. Looking at the curious pack members who were staring back at her she shrugged. “He’s going to talk with Deaton.”

“About?” Scott questioned with a frown.

“Didn’t say, just said to keep the sheriff out of trouble.”

Scott snorted. “Easier said than done.”

The pack smiled back at the discouraged Alpha, they continued on their way back to the loft. Leaving Derek to sort out things with Deaton while they waited for the sheriff to come to join the search.

 


	24. Dragging the cat in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek finally gets Stiles to think about what memories he got from the Bastili, the sheriff has a hard time letting go of his son and the pack realizes just how unsteady of ground their stepping on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go folks, we get to see Derek interacting with Stiles one on one and how Stiles' father takes everything that is going on. Hope you enjoy the chapter, leave a comment if you do XD.

Derek hadn’t meant to fall asleep though he did feel better for having done so, Erica’s call helped in that he was able to relay the pack that he hadn’t located Stiles and that they should be careful while searching for him. A caution was sent towards them to keeping the sheriff safe, something Derek knew the pack was already well aware of but he still felt the need to reinforce. Derek hung up the call from Erica, he knew they wouldn’t appreciate his lie but Derek had a hunch that things might go smoother if he gave some time for Stiles to adjust at his own pace. If the Bastili didn’t settle down by tomorrow he’d let them come to help harras him. As it was Derek glanced to the cave only to still, Stiles wasn’t there.

Stumbling to his feet the Alpha was about to shout the boy's name when his eyes caught movement, looking just a bit up he saw him. Stiles was spread out on one of the rocks, his tail leisurely swaying down the side of it. The Bastili stared down at him and if Derek was the hazard a guess he was mocking him. The chittering noise that followed soon after seemed to back that up, glaring Derek called out. “Get down.”

‘Bite me.’ Stiles called back uselessly. 

Derek’s brow furrowed when the teen did nothing more than stare back at him, he was considering trying his Alpha voice when he noticed the cuts on the Bastili’s sleek frame. They were bleeding still, but the wounds themselves weren’t overly bloody. Looking back to the cat Derek questioned. “You cleaned them.”

Stiles twisted his head to the side, curious by the Alpha’s statement. Following the Alpha’s finger to his hip, the cat huffed when he saw the wound was once again trailing a bit of blood. Leaning over he licked at it a few times before it appeared to stop. Turning back to the Alpha Stiles bared his teeth a moment, his head coming to lay on top of his paws as he regarded Derek silently. 

‘What now Derek? You going to stick around and watch me like some creeper?’ Stiles found the idea of that amusing, he knew that the pack wasn’t coming based on the man’s conversation with someone from the pack. He was still interested to know why Derek had done that but figured it would just work out better for him.

“You need to come down.”

Stiles snorted, earning a heartier glare from the Alpha much to his amusement. “Stiles.”

The cat yawned as if bored, he wasn’t but it was fun to taunt the wolf. Derek’s tone turned sharper. “We need to go back eventually, they’ll come looking. Your dad is going to help with the search for you.” The Alpha finally settled on.

The Bastili’s earlier merriment ceased, he turned away from the wolf. Curling into his side and laying his tail across his face as if to truly stop himself from seeing or being seen.

Derek scowled at the cat’s actions, shaking his head he approached one of the rocks and scaled it with ease. Kneeling down on the hard surface just a few feet away from the cat. “I don’t know why you chose to do this, but you need to come back to the loft. You need to change back, I have a blanket if you’re worried about that or you can change back at the loft.”

Stiles ignored him, his own mind plagued with the fact that he was making his dad worry. He hadn’t meant to do that, but he supposed it was asking too much for Scott to lie to the man. Scott sucked at lying. 

“Stiles.” It was said in a tired voice. “Come on.”

Stiles allowed his tail to slump off his face, giving the wolf an apathetic look even as he was surprised at how close the wolf now was. He hadn’t anticipated that Derek would climb the rocks to join him, but then Stiles had to remind him that Derek never was one to back down. The look the Alpha was giving Stiles spoke of a lot of things, he was tired, annoyed, and worse yet he looked worried. Stiles huffed back at the wolf, hoping that Derek might get the hint and leave. No such luck.

Derek sighed when it appeared that Stiles wasn’t going to make this easy on him, not overly surprising given the teens track record. Still, he found himself doing something entirely reckless, he reached out his hand stilling when the cat’s maw lifted and a rumbling sound left its chest.

“Easy.” He whispered. “You know I can’t drag you back.” He replied in irritation. “You’d just paralyze me.”

‘Actually I wouldn’t asshole, but I like the fact that you assume that. Works for me.’ Stiles watched warily as the wolfs hand came closer, his teeth being revealed more by his upturned lip until the warmth of Derek's hand filtered in subtly through his fur. Stiles huffed when all the man did was stroke him.

‘You’re petting me? Seriously Derek, this is your great move?’

Stiles turned his head away, laying on top of his paws once more and not so subtly turning himself away from Derek as the man continued to lightly stroke his side.

“You still don’t heal as fast as wolves.” The man commented as he looked at the cuts in the cat’s body. They were nearly there, the edges not having formed together so little slips of blood still escaped. Fresh skin and fur were sprouting around the remainder of the healed wound.

‘I’m not a wolf, thought we established that a while ago.’

Stiles really didn’t want to admit but being petted felt nice, the man’s hand was solid but gentle as it ran through his fur. The teen had never figured that he’d be petted in his life, but seeing as he was a supernatural cat it was rather fitting. Stiles sighed as he relaxed into the man’s ministrations, this wouldn’t be half bad if Stiles didn’t know that Derek was doing this as a ploy to get him to return. 

‘You know that feels nice and I hate you all the more for it, not that you care.’

Derek stayed there, petting Stiles’ coat while the teen ignored him. There was nothing else he could do short of calling the pack and telling them whereabouts they could find them. Derek had an inkling that the Bastili before him wouldn’t put up with that. Other than baring his teeth and hissing a bit Stiles hadn’t tried to attack him or ward him off with the threat of paralyzation. The Alpha figured that the teen wouldn’t go to such extremes unless he felt truly threatened and even then it might not be the boy's decision so much as instinct. So, Derek contented himself with gently stroking the beast's side, glancing from the cold shoulder he was getting to the wound that was slowly stitching itself together.

 

********

 

It was getting late and Derek still hadn’t returned, but Scott couldn’t focus on what his fellow Alpha was doing or rather not doing. The sheriff had just driven up and the nerves he had felt when telling the man his son had run off were back tenfold. Going to the door, Scott walked the few steps to reach the man’s vehicle as it parked. Noah opened the door, climbing from his cruiser. He shut the door behind him with a shove of the driver's side door all while staring at Scott, the teen looked a mess. Sighing Noah asked. “Any leads?”

Scott shook his head. “No, I’m sorry th-”

Noah held up his hand. “Scott, we both know that when Stiles sets his mind to something he does it whether or not anyone else thinks it’s a good idea.” The man stared back at the teen flatly as he spoke before smiling. “Let’s just try to find him alright?”

Scott nodded. “Right.” Scott motioned for the man to follow him inside, the rest of the pack were there and they’d made an impromptu map of the already searched areas, it was rough and probably not at all accurate to the terrain. Still, it had given them something to do and in part, it might help limit the area that they searched.

Noah smiled to the pack, not having the strength or energy to really say hello as he came to stare at the map the teens had put together. He sighed at the large area laid out before them. He could see where the teens believed had already been searched, Noah pressed down on an area of the map. “Derek took that trail, he didn’t find him.”

Scott nodded, quickly marking the trail off. “That’s where the cougar was?”

“Yeah.” Noah sighed. “I-I don’t know what I was thinking...Stiles would never-”

“You weren’t sure that it was Stiles.” Erica chimed in softly. “We have instincts, you know that...There was a chance even if we didn’t think it possible.”

Noah nodded his head, grateful that the pack understood. “Let’s try and focus on a particular area, you all can lead by scent...I have to do things the hard way.” He smiled tiredly at them.

“I’ll be going with you.” Scott reassured the man. “I can lead you that way, if we find him I think you’ll have the best chance of talking him down.”

Noah snorted. “You’re acting like he’s on a ledge threatening to jump.”

Scott shrugged. “Right now he’s in the middle of the woods naked and refusing to come back to civilization.”

Noah stared back at the teen a moment before muttering. “Of course he is.” He deadpanned. “Totally a wise choice, stupid kid.” The sheriff shook his head much to the pack's amusement, pointing to a section of the map the man replied. “Let’s start here if he is on foot he can’t make it far. Especially with night coming.”

“He can see in the dark.” Isaac supplied. “But that won’t make walking barefoot in the woods any better.”

“Good to know.” The man sighed. “Let’s head out, we have a large area to search before day leaves us.”

The teens broke off from Scott and the sheriff, the trio headed towards their own search area. Scott held back with the sheriff as the pack wandered away.

“I’m sorry sir.”

“It’s not your fault Scott, whatever he’s doing right now he’s doing because he foolishly thinks its right.” Leveling a smile towards the worried teen the sheriff replied. “He’s stubborn, especially so when he thinks he’s in the right.”

“Yeah.” Scott mulled it over, that did depict his best friend pretty well. “Isaac threatened to tag him.”

The sheriff's brow furrowed. “Tag him?”

Scott smirked. “Like pet owners do.”

Noah chuckled. “I don’t think we’ll have to do that, but let's keep it as an option.” He winked before heading into the woods. 

Scott smiled to himself, giving chase to catch up with the man. The search was back on and he was determined to find his best friend. Whether Stiles liked it or not.

 

**********

 

Derek wasn’t sure how long he sat there, simply petting the Bastili’s side. Long enough for Stiles’ injuries to heal, the cats coat once more blemish free. Cautious he’d trailed his fingers across the area but got no response from Stiles, the area truly healed. Derek sighed as he sat there, all attempts made by him to urge the teen to return with him had failed. Stiles seemed no closer on going back then when Derek had first stumbled upon the cat. 

As frustrating as that was for Derek, he was more worried about how the pack was going to act if he didn’t return that night. That was one thing they wouldn’t just push aside, which meant he either had to tell the truth and ask them not to come or allow them to come out into the woods and help him try to get Stiles to come home. Neither prospect made him feel good, but Stiles was forcing his hand.

“The pack are searching for you.” He reminded the teen. “They’ll notice if I don’t come back, they’ll ask questions and want to come here.” Derek pulled his hand back sharply when the cat growled and its fur stood on end, the quills as well. Sighing Derek muttered. “You can’t stop them you know, they’d just track your scent from the trail like I did.”

‘No.’ Stiles growled as he whipped his head around to hiss. ‘They aren’t coming here.’ Stiles knew his quills were erect, that his body was quivering with the anxiety of facing his friends or worse his father. 

“I can give you tonight if I tell them the truth.” Derek offered mildly. “But come morning we go back, whether you’ve sorted yourself out or not.” He gave the cat a steely look to his offer.

‘Piss off.’ Stiles bared his teeth, a deep growl emitting from his chest.

“Or I call them right now and tell them we’re here.” Derek threatened. “Your choice.”

Stiles snorted back at the wolf, rising to his feet and giving a shake before glowering back at Derek. ‘Don’t threaten me Derek or I’ll help you take another nap.’ He bared his fangs before passing the wolf in his hop down to the ground.

Derek twisted unsure what the cat was about to do, he shook his head in absolute frustration when he saw Stiles crawl back into his little hollow. That wasn’t an answer and what was worse he knew there was no way he could get Stiles back out of there. Not if the cat didn’t want to come out that is. Sliding down the rocks, Derek made his way back to the entrance and sat down as he had previously.

“You didn’t make a choice.” Derek stated coolly even as he fished out his phone, prepared to call the pack. Derek glared when a clawed paw came close to cutting him as the teen bared his teeth and swatted at him.

“Don’t.” He reinforced with his Alpha.

Stiles demurely settled back into his hollow, Derek frowned at the teen's action. Maybe his Alpha did work on Stiles, at least to some degree. Keeping that to himself, for now, Derek held up his phone.

“Now or in the morning.”

Stiles bared his teeth right before he stalked forward and took Derek to the ground. Roaring in his face as his heavy paws stood on the Alpha’s shoulders, pinning him in place as he straddled the man’s chest.

Derek grimaced at the loud noise, but when Stiles ceased it he glared up at the Bastili. He flared his own eyes, his beta shift falling over him like water. Baring his own teeth he roared back, prepared to throw the teen off of himself only to pause when Stiles made a grumbling noise and slinked off of him. Baring his teeth even as he subtly submitted, Derek sat up glaring after the teen who looked prepped to flee.

“Sit down.”

Stiles hissed at first, but slowly he lowered himself down onto his belly. Not sitting, but Derek ignored that small act of rebellion in the face of using the opportunity for what it was. He maintained eye contact with Stiles the entire time as he moved, carefully situating himself on his heels.

“Don’t do that again.” He cautioned the teen. “I’m trying to help.”

‘I didn’t ask for your help!’ Stiles bared his teeth, a throaty growl leaving him.

“Don’t.” Derek growled back.

Stiles found himself lowering his head despite not wanting too, stupid Alpha voice. It wasn’t supposed to work on him, it hadn’t when he’d attacked them all. So why was it working now, when he really didn’t want it to?

Derek gave a nod. “You haven’t been listening have you?” Derek gave him a piercing look when Stiles shifted on his paws. “You’ve been caught up in your own head like usual.”

‘Bite me.’ Stiles hissed.

“You didn’t hurt anyone.” Derek stared the cat down. “You were playing with them or at least the Bastili was...You never even drew blood even when you were chewing on them.”

Stiles growled. ‘Liar. I know what I saw.’

Sighing when the teen continued to growl at him despite his best efforts to make him see sense, Derek asked. “Don’t you think I’d protect them?!” Stiles’ growl tapered. “Don’t you think if one of them was hurt that I’d intervene? I’d put a stop to it even if it was you, but not one of us had ripped clothing did we? You didn’t see any blood on us. Did you Stiles?”

Stiles thought about that, trying to sort through the hazy visions he was shown of the Bastili’s time with the pack. He saw the violence of this so-called play, Stiles wanted to rally against it. Tell Derek how wrong he was, but when he forced himself to look again he found that there was truth to the Alpha’s claims. No blood, no torn clothing. Nothing.

‘Are you really telling me the truth?’ Stiles raised his head, staring back at the Alpha almost imploringly if the cat's face was even able to do so.

Derek watched the Bastili silently a moment, when the teens head came upright once more there seemed to be a subtle shift in the cat's body posture. “You didn’t find anything did you?”

Stiles huffed. ‘Know it all.’ Stiles climbed to his feet, unable to fight the urge to shake himself out before he walked steadily towards Derek. He sat before the Alpha and chuffed. ‘You’re an asshole sometimes you know that Derek Hale?’

Derek eyed the beast cautiously, it would be all to easy for Stiles to paralyze him. When the cat chuffed in his face Derek raised a brow only to huff in amusement when the cat came forward to headbutt him. His hand came out to push the cats face away. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Stiles growled back at the Alpha and his cocky attitude even as he rounded to rub against the man. Finding the movement calming, even if he was somewhat aware that he was scenting the wolf. Derek smirked as the cat rubbed against him, reaching out to still the beasts pacing. Stroking the cat's maw Derek asked cautiously.

“Ready to go back?”

Stiles huffed, truth be told, no. But he saw the truth in that he couldn’t remain out in the woods when he had a sliver of faith in what Derek had told him. That he hadn’t hurt the pack, though he still had reservations he had to trust that Derek would lead him.

‘I’m ready to go back.’

Stiles gave a nod, earning a broad smile from Derek.

 

*******

 

The sun was setting when Noah called it in, resigned to the fact that they wouldn’t find Stiles that night. Scott seemed just a dejected as the sheriff and no words were passed between them as Scott called the rest of the pack to instruct them to head back. From there the march of failure proceeded, just as the sun was setting they came to the edge of the woods. Scott froze, gaining the sheriff's confused gaze.

“Stiles.”

The sheriff's eyes widened. “You can-”

Scott nodded even as he ran ahead to the loft, the sheriff fast on his heels. Scott all but ripped the door from its hinges when he threw it open, coming to an abrupt halt when he saw Derek leaning against the counter top in the kitchen. Drinking from a water bottle, the Alpha raised a brow as he set it aside.

“What?”

“Is he here?”

Derek smirked, nodded and then waylaid the teen. “He’s upstairs, let him have some time...He didn’t want to come back.”

Scott had already made it to the bottom of the stairs but froze. “He didn’t?”

Derek sighed. “Memories Scott.”

The wolf’s hand fell from the banister, he moved away even as his eyes looked up at the bedroom that he couldn’t see into. “What’s he doing?”

“Resting.” Derek supplied even as he nodded towards the sheriff who looked entirely wrung out. “He’s the one who took down the cougar.”

The sheriff’s eyes widened. “He did? How-”

“He’s a Bastili, he has claws and quills.”

“He paralyzed it?” Scott stared back at his fellow Alpha in awe.

“By mistake would be my guess, it jumped him too.” He sent a look towards the sheriff. “Cut into his hip and got a face full of quills for it.”

“Is he alright? How badly was he hurt?” The sheriff made to go up the stairs himself, but Scott stopped him. 

“He heals sir.” Looking past the man he dared Derek to say otherwise. His fellow Alpha nodded.

“He’s already healed.”

That deflated the sheriff. “Thank god.”

“I got him to come back after telling him that his memories were flawed.”

“Yeah?”

Derek nodded. “He didn’t want to listen at first.” Derek smirked when the sheriff wasn’t the only one to snort. “He just needs some time to settle.” He assured the man.

“I want to see my son Derek.”

Sighing Derek gave the man a curious look even as he stated. “He’s a Bastili.”

“I know that.” Noah grit out.

Derek chuckled as the man misinterpreted what he had said. “No, I mean he’s a Bastili right now.”

That had both Scott and Noah dumbstruck.

“He hasn’t changed back?” Scott asked in bewilderment.

“No.” Derek gave a shrug. “I don’t know if he just doesn’t want to or if he’s having trouble changing back. I told him he could rest before we tackled that issue either way.”

Noah gazed up at the loft space, his eyes coming back down to Derek far firmer. “I want to see him.”

Scott grimaced at the man’s curt tone, he wouldn’t be able to stop the man. He knew how much this had to be hurting the sheriff. Being on the outside with no real means of helping his son. “Come on.” He gave in a defeated voice. “You can see him a minute, but give him his space.” He assured Derek with a nod even as he talked with the sheriff. Derek didn’t look too pleased with his conceding to the man but didn’t stop them. 

Ascending the stairs, Scott frowned when he saw the still broken window and no sign of Stiles.

“Oh god, not again.” Scott groaned, prepared to run back down the stairs to warn Derek. He stilled a moment later when Derek called up to them.

“Closet.”

Scott froze, turned and then sighed when it proved that the older Alpha was correct. Twin speck of glowing green glowered back at him. “Hey buddy.”

The sheriff pushed past him, coming closer only to pause when a growling was heard. Scott caught up with the man, putting a steadying hand on the man’s elbow.

“It’s okay...We’ll stay here.” Scott gave the sheriff a pleading look, begging him not to push in case they drove Stiles to run again.

Noah sighed, looking into the darkness only able to see the glowing green eyes. “Stiles you had me worried sick.”

The eyes blinked and then lowered, Noah frowned a moment before hearing a chuff from inside the darkened space. “Are you going to come out?”

Stiles didn’t want to do that, he could hear the pain in his father's voice and was afraid of how he’d react to the real sight of him. Not a picture but real flesh and blood, the Bastili might be beautiful in its own right but his dad was still rather inexperienced when it came to the supernatural.

“Stiles.” Noah pleaded. 

The cat grumbled, the eyes lifting as the cat climbed to its feet. He didn’t leave the confines of the closet, not entirely but he did stick his head out of it to glower at his father. ‘There are you happy now?’

Noah’s eyes widened at the sight of his son. “Jesus.”

Stiles flattened his ears to the back of his head and made a displeased yowling sound before tucking himself back into the closet. Scott took a hasty step forward.

“No, dude it’s okay.” The cat growled in warning when Scott moved closer.

‘Go away.” He growled.

Noah was still staring at the darkened space from where the beasts head had appeared, that was his son but it wasn’t. Stiles...He’d known, of course, he’d talked with Chris about it. Learned what he could about the thing his son was turning into, but nothing could have prepared him for that. 

“Give him some space.” Derek instructed the pair as he came to the top of the stairs, he glanced into the closet, seeing the Bastili’s eyes shift about as the cat did. Scott thankfully listened to him, moving back a bit and forcing the still gobsmacked sheriff to do the same. Derek came to stand beside them, watching the cat until the eyes blinked out of existence. Stiles either having closed them or shifted to hide his face, neither result mattered as Derek turned to usher the others out.

“Let him rest a bit.”

Scott nodded silently to Derek's request, gently pulling on the sheriff to lead Noah back towards the stairs. The man stumbled a bit at first but caught himself in time and slowly made his way back down the stairs with Scott in tow. Derek waited until they were down on the ground floor before approaching the closet, the green eyes appeared and a small growl was heard.

“Easy.” He stated softly. “You can stay there if you want, but there are better places to hide...More comfortable ones to be sure.” He smirked.

‘Says you.’ Stiles countered. He liked the darkness, the enclosed space felt more akin to a den than the wide open spaces of the loft. Stiles shifted his head around a bit and chuffed at the Alpha. Derek seemed to get the message this time, nodding before heading back towards the stairs. He paused long enough to attempt to reassure the teen. “He’s just surprised you know, he didn’t smell scared.” With that, Derek proceeded back downstairs to join Scott in his attempts to assure the sheriff that they could look after Stiles.

Stiles huffed, stupid Derek and his stupid words. Just cause his dad didn’t smell scared didn’t mean that he was prepared to deal with a son who was now a supernatural death cat. That was not in the brochure of being a parent.

 

********

 

Scott looked up from where he was trying to console the sheriff, Derek shook his head back at him.

“He’s going to stay there a while.” His gaze settled on Noah, the Alpha sighing. “Sir, he’s adjusting to it, it's difficult to-”

Noah shook his head, cutting off whatever platitudes the Alpha had to give him. “How in the hell is he supposed to adjust to that?!” The man hissed back at the Alpha. “That isn’t like you or Scott, that is so different it's not even on this planet!”

Scott grimaced as the sheriff started a tirade about the chaos that Stiles’ shift had caused, namely his best friend being a supernatural cat. Scott agreed, but he also knew better than to be shouting such things when the topic of discussion could hear them.

“Sir.” He tried to interject before the man unwittingly upset Stiles further, they’d just gotten him back and he wasn’t in a hurry to go traipsing through the forest again. “It’s difficult and yeah it’s totally different, but he’ll get there. We’re gonna help him figure stuff out, we just need to...Calm down.” He winced when the man’s sharp gaze locked onto him.

“Calm down? Scott McCall my son is upstairs hiding in a closet! Not only is he hiding in a closet, but he’s not even h-”

Derek knew where this was going and he knew what would happen if Stiles took things out of context again. That was probably why he didn’t mince words with the man, pulling on his inner Alpha to reign in the man. “Enough!”

Noah froze, his head rounding to Derek. The older Alpha was scowling back at them, though the sheriff could tell that the glower was sent more in his direction than Scott’s.

“He’s tired, cranky, and seemingly stuck in his shift. He doesn’t need this going on right now, we’ll sort through this crap.” He promised the sheriff. “But we’ll do it our way.”

Noah frowned but was prevented from saying anything further by Scott backing up Derek.

“He’s right...Stiles probably needs some time to sort himself out, it was a big change for him. If Derek’s right and he’s somehow stuck it’ll be frustrating to him to be stuck like that, unable to tell us what’s going on. You gotta trust us to take care of him.” Scott implored the man.

Ordinarily, Noah would have walked away content in the knowledge that his son was being looked after, but after the debacle that had been Stiles’ initial transformation, he was finding it harder to let go. “He ran away from all of you.” That had both of the wolves flinching. “What makes me so sure he won’t do that again and I’ll once more be getting a call about my son being missing while looking like a cat?!”

“You don’t.” Derek replied. “But you can’t take care of him and we can.” It was a hard truth, but Derek needed the sheriff to understand. “If he paralyzes one of us, there’s the rest of the pack to deal with the fallout. We have experience with shifts and all the stuff that comes with it, we’ll at least in some part understand him.” Derek gave the man a steely look. “I’m sorry sheriff, but you can’t do that. You need to leave Stiles with us.”

Noah’s hands clenched into fists, all the fear and anger he’d felt over the day bottled up. Being told that he couldn’t help his own damn son because they weren’t the same species anymore, he had to put faith once more into a group of teenagers rather than himself. 

“Derek’s right sir.” Scott muttered. “We have space here, he can get the hang of things without being worried about someone seeing him. If he has trouble shifting there won’t be a big deal since we’ll all be here.”

Noah shook his head, he didn’t want to hear this. His hand clenched tightly at his side the sheriff rasped. “I can’t just leave him.”

“You have to.” Derek stated firmly. “He can’t go home with you like he is and even if he could, you have to work, Stiles would be alone. He’s a part of our pack, we take care of our own.”

Noah looked up into the firm face of the Alpha wolf. “Don’t you dare let him go or I swear on my life Derek Hale, I will find a -”

“He won’t go anywhere.” Derek cut off the man’s threat. “Once he’s shifted back he’ll call you.” 

Defeated, Noah sagged with a nod. Scott came forward to wrap an arm around him, leading him towards the door after giving Derek a pained look. The older Alpha had shaken his head, urging the younger to escort the man back to his car. Once the pair were out of the loft did Derek blow out a breath through his nose, he’d thought getting Stiles back to the loft would be the hard part. Looking up at the top of the stairs, Derek wondered what else might lay ahead for them.

 

********

 

The Beta’s had trudged back towards the loft when the sun began to set, they hadn’t heard from Scott or Derek but it was safe to say that no one had found Stiles and that it was time to call it a night.

“Where do you think he is?” Isaac muttered even as he glanced around the woods they were walking through.

“I don’t know.” Erica retorted with a sigh. “But he’s probably wishing he hadn’t left.”

“It’s not cold yet.” Boyd interjected.

“He’s naked.” Erica scowled back at him. “Doesn’t need to be below freezing for him to be cold when he’s in nothing but his skin.”

Isaac snorted. “Yeah, he had a great plan there.”

“Not really.” Boyd replied coolly. “He’ll come home.”

“How can you be so sure?” Isaac frowned at his fellow beta. “He’s been missing for nearly two days now. Wouldn’t he have come home sooner than this?”

Erica rolled her eyes. “You would think, but then again it’s Stiles.”

The trio smirked at that if there was one thing they could count on it would be the teen's stubbornness. The loft was in sight just up ahead, the sheriff's cruiser was no longer there.

“Did he go home?” Isaac mused. “Why didn’t Scott call us?”

Erica huffed. “Because he’s stupid.” She rounded on the Alpha easily enough. “He probably figured that it wouldn’t hurt to have us finish up whatever we were doing. Not that it made a difference.”

Isaac shared a look with Boyd, Erica had gotten more and more irate as their search progressed. Neither of them was fooled by it, she was scared. Of course, the two Beta’s kept that to themselves, not wanting to spark the girl's rage or worse tears. Whatever else Erica was about to tell them was held up by the girl suddenly gasping.

The boys turned to look at her before Erica took off running, towards the loft.

“What the hell?” Isaac gave chase only to start running faster when he picked up the scent that had started Erica’s own sprint. Boyd was fast behind him, Stiles was here. 

None of them thought about what might happen when they barged into the loft in such a hurry, namely how the door would make such a loud bang and startle everyone inside.

“Son of a-” Scott hissed from where he’s spilled soda on himself.

Derek sighed, glowering at the Betas and quickly calling them to order. “Quiet down.” He growled. 

“But-” Isaac winced when Derek’s glower turned sharper.

“He was sleeping, though I doubt he is anymore.” The Alpha told them all in irritation.

“Where is he?” Erica turned to go down the hallway to the spare bedroom when Scott stopped her.

“He’s not down there.” The boy muttered even as he wiped at his shirt. “He’s upstairs, but leave him alone alright.” Scott wandered into the kitchen to try and get some of the soda off of himself.

Derek gave a nod. “He’s been hiding out there, I told him it was fine since he wasn’t all that pleased to be coming back in the first place.”

“Why not?”

Derek sighed at the hurt look the blonde Beta sent his way. “He’s stressed Isaac, he’s still the Bastili.”

“Wait.” Erica paused. “You mean he never shifted back?”

Derek shook his head.

“Oh...That’s not good is it?”

Derek huffed. “Not really, we were letting him settle down in the hopes that he might be able to.”

Erica, Isaac, and Boyd winced at the not so subtle jab at their impromptu entrance. “Just give him some space, we’ll work everything out when he’s calmed down some.”

The Beta’s nodded, though Derek took notice how they all glanced up at where his bedroom was. The urge to go and see their missing packmate had to be nagging at them, but Derek was resolute. After the teen's father made a spectacle, he wanted to keep things calm. The Alpha didn’t know how long it might take for Stiles to transform back on his own or if they’d have to intervene in some manner if it didn’t happen naturally. Derek didn’t want to think about that.

“Where was he?” Boyd questioned as he came to lean against the kitchen counter, idly watching Scott attempt to clean his shirt.

“Found him further up the trail from where the cyclist was killed by the cougar, they crossed paths.” Derek made it known in the inflection of his voice that they shouldn’t ask about that. “He found some rocks that he took shelter in.”

“Rocks?” Erica didn’t seem overly convinced.

Derek smirked. “He had a hollow that he could fit into, I could reach in and grab him.”

“Not without getting laid out you mean.” Isaac snorted.

Derek nodded. “So I waited him out.” The Alpha shrugged before adding. “I told him about the charm, but I don’t think he fully believes me. When he’s up and moving about we need to show him our clothes.”

“Umm...Why?” Erica scrunched up her brow.

Derek rolled his eyes. “Because he still thinks he hurt us, I told him that he hadn’t and that it would be pretty easy to tell since our clothes would be bloody and torn.”

“But they aren’t.” She smirked.

“Exactly.”

They turned when Boyd suddenly spoke. “That doesn’t work.” 

They found that Scott was trying to soak up some of the soda with a paper towel despite his shirt already being soaking wet from both the soda and water. Erica snorted at the teen's attempts to fix his shirt.

“What is it with men and laundry?”

“Hey.” Isaac shouted. “I’m not like him, I can do laundry.”

Scott looked up from his shirt to glower at the both of them. “You both caused this.” 

The Beta’s paused a moment to consider that before Erica chimed in. “That’s not the issue, the issue is that you’re failing at fixing it.”

Scott huffed as he returned to his attempts to fix said shirt. Boyd smirked as he continued to watch his Alpha struggle, Erica and Isaac moved off from taunting him. Turning instead to Derek, Isaac being the one to ask.

“So furniture?”

Derek snorted. “If you want to carry it up go for it.”

“You can’t say that you don’t want somewhere to sit.” Erica rounded on him.

Derek gave her a look before pushing past them, he came to the stairs that led to his bedroom and sat on the lower stairs. Erica glared at the now smirking Alpha.

“Jerk.”

Isaac snorted, nudging her. “Come on, let’s go get the chairs.”

“Boyd!”

The dark-skinned teen sighed, leaving Scott to his failures to accompany his fellow Beta’s into the storage space below. Scott looked up from his shirt, giving Derek a smirk at his rebuttal to Erica. Derek leaned back on the stairs, prepared to watch.

The Beta’s managed between the three of them to get the chairs back up, it was after they were done with that, that Scott finally offered to help some. Him and Boyd carrying up the sofa while Isaac and Erica got the coffee table. By the time the room was once more in order, they were all prepared to sit down for a while. Falling into various spots on the couches and chairs the pack fell silent.

“Which one of you is helping me fix my window?” Derek asked with a smirk now that the Beta’s and Scott were all collapsed on the available surfaces. The groans he got back had the Alpha smiling, he did so love doing that to them. Derek didn’t bat an eye when Boyd climbed to his feet, giving him a slightly put out look, the closest to real annoyance the silent teen ever got. Nodding Derek pushed himself up off of the stairs and waved the Beta into following him.

“I have some sheet plastic, we’ll tape the window over until I can order a new one.”

Boyd gave a nod, waiting for Derek to get the needed supplies before heading up the stairs to the man's bedroom. Boyd couldn’t stop himself from glancing towards the closet, one of the doors was open but it was nothing but blackness inside.

Frowning the Beta continued forward, climbing up onto the Alpha’s bed alongside Derek to start the process of taping the sheet plastic to the ceiling. It was slow going as they had to hold the plastic for one another before taping it in place, Derek of the mind that they needed to use a lot of tape because he didn’t want to deal with it falling. Boyd could understand that, but it did make things take longer. They were half-way down the left side of the open window when there was additional movement on the bed, both men turned. At the foot of the bed sat Stiles, the cat bared his teeth at them and that was enough for Derek to nudge Boyd and get the Beta focused once more on their task and not the cat that was watching them.

“How long will it take?”

“Hm?” Derek mused while taping a section of plastic.

“For the new window?”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t know, a week or two I think...Doesn’t matter.” He stated, giving Boyd a look that was lost on their audience. Boyd smirked quickly commenting.

“The weathers nice, the air will be good.”

“Yeah.” Derek replied even as he hid his own smirk in his work. The rest of their progress was done in silence, or near it. Occasionally one of them would turn to see what Stiles was up to, the bed shifted now and then. Each time one of them glanced the cat was sitting still and would bare its teeth at them. Whatever Stiles was doing while their backs were turned eluded them, but at least the teen wasn’t hiding in the closet anymore. 

When the last of the plastic sheeting was in place, the evening air officially kept outside the two wolves stepped away from their work. Derek gave a nod, quickly telling his Beta. “Thanks.”

Boyd nodded, turning to leave only to pause when Stiles was closer than either of them had anticipated. The Bastili only a foot away from them, staring intently at them. Derek sighed at the standoff they were now in until Stiles showed what he wanted or didn’t want they couldn’t very well ignore him. 

“Stiles.”

The cat’s ears twitched, but it ignored Derek altogether as it took another tentative step closer to Boyd. The Beta smirked back at the creature, despite Derek’s confusion the teen had a good idea what this was about. He’d paid attention to what Derek had told them all downstairs, Stiles had come out for a reason and Boyd was pretty sure he was it. Offering out his hand the quiet teen stated calmly. “Your jaws are strong, but you’re more like a kitten.”

Stiles’ ears plastered back against his head as he growled, Boyd didn’t take it to heart as he continued. “You didn’t hurt me.” That had the Bastili slinking backward, whether or not Stiles believed him they weren’t sure as the cat jumped from the bed and went back into his preferred hiding place. 

Boyd sighed, looking to Derek and giving a shrug. Derek nodded back, he wasn’t sure what Stiles had wanted out of that interaction but it was clear he wasn’t entirely happy with what he got. Cleaning up what supplies they had around the bed, the pair made to leave. Boyd going down ahead of Derek, the Alpha stalled, looking into the closet. Green specks stared back at him, Derek smiled back at the Bastili a moment before heading downstairs, not a word spoken between them.

 

*********

 

Stiles wasn’t entirely sure what he had expected out of his little venture, he should have known better. There was no way that Boyd would admit to being hurt by him, but the teen had to acknowledge that the boys clothing was the same he’d worn the night of his first shift. Stiles could smell the sweat, the salt and various aroma’s of the teens prolonged exposure to the same clothing. Boyd hadn’t changed his shirt which meant that Stiles had no proof that he’d physically harmed the teen, despite knowing that was a good thing Stiles was frustrated by it. He knew what he saw, it was vivid, real. 

Stiles assured himself silently that he’d take a close look at the others, he just needed a minute to collect himself. Going downstairs was a big step, he could hear them all down there. Knew they were waiting for him to make an appearance, Stiles wasn’t so keen on all of that. He just wanted answers, good or bad. 

 

**********

 

“So what’s the deal?” Erica whispered as if lowering her voice might shield Stiles from the present conversation. None of them were entirely sure how well the beasts hearing was, so it was best to take precautions. “What do we do?”

Derek gave her a disgruntled look, both because of the whispering and the question. “We don’t do anything, he’ll come down when he feels like it. Don’t push him.” He cautioned before nodding towards Boyd. “He already checked Boyd out.”

“He’s testing us.” Boyd commented before adding. “Our reactions.”

Derek gave a nod. “He still doesn’t believe me, we just have to be patient.”

Scott snorted. “That’s rich coming from Stiles.”

The pack snickered at that, Scott wasn’t wrong there. The teen had a way of being incredibly impatient when he was bored or nervous and yet other times he could be so focused on a task to forget to eat or sleep. They’d all gotten used to Stiles unique quirks, it was a shame that this time they weren’t doing anyone any favors. 

“So we just sit here.” Erica groused. “Waiting.”

Isaac snorted. “We don’t just have to sit here, we can do stuff. He’ll come down eventually.”

“Or stay hidden in the closet.” Scott replied with a confused look to Derek. “What’s up with that anyway? There’s other places he could have holed himself in.”

Derek shook his head. “It’s the first place he went, I told him the same thing Scott and he just growled at me. He can hide wherever he wants to if that’s what he wants to do.”

Scott huffed, not in the slightest alright with his best friend hiding himself away in Derek’s closet. He didn’t say as much though since the pack was watching him and he knew that nothing he could say would change Stiles’ mind at the moment. As loathed as he was to admit it, Derek was right. They just had to wait for Stiles to make a move. 

“So...Movie?” Isaac treaded into the waters carefully, gauging the rest of the pack's reactions to his idea. It would pass the time and maybe even draw Stiles down from his hiding place or so the Beta hoped. 

Erica and Boyd gave nods, Boyd walking off to retrieve the laptop while Isaac stared at the two Alpha’s of the pack, waiting for their input. Derek finally shrugged, moving past them to sit on his favorite chair by the window. He was able to watch the movie from his angle if he so chose, but he was more interested in reading more about the lore around the Bastili itself. He’d made it halfway through the book on the Bastili and was finding it more and more interesting. 

Settled in his own little part of the loft, Derek listened idly to the pack argue about what movie they should watch. Scott adement that they weren’t watching some romantic comedy flick that Erica always seemed to favor, Isaac was quick to be on the Alpha’s side while Boyd remained silent. Refusing to choose a side despite his girlfriend glaring at him, Derek smirked as he read. This was normal to him, there was just one thing missing, one person. The Alpha really hoped that Stiles would sort himself out soon, at the very least start interacting with the pack. Sooner or later they were going to have to address the teens inability to shift back. 

Derek idly listened to the pack settling on a movie, the opening sounds of the movie title playing before he tuned it all out in his reading. There was nothing more to do but read and wait.

 

********

 

Stiles could hear the pack talking, heard every word they said even with Erica’s attempts to whisper. He’d found it amusing to hear wolves of all people attempt to be stealthy, they should have known better. Of course, he could hear them, not that it particularly mattered it wasn’t like they were saying something bad let alone something he didn’t already know. When he heard them break into arguments about movies, he knew things were settling back down. Stiles couldn’t help but snort when he heard the boys arguing against Erica’s penchant for romantic comedies, Stiles knew it wasn’t because she liked the lovey-dovey crap so much as she found the whole things hilarious. The boys didn’t seem to get that, but Stiles had to hand it to them when they banded together to fight back against the only woman in the pack. The group settling on an action flick not long after, Derek was silent and Stiles wasn’t sure what the Alpha was doing. Brooding would have been his first guess, but Stiles knew that Derek didn’t do too much of that anymore. He’d grown as an Alpha, as a person since he’d first met them all. His brooding days were pretty much over which meant that the Alpha was doing something, just a quiet something. 

Stiles knew that he’d have to break down and go downstairs, the pack wasn’t wrong there. If he wanted answers he’d have to be around them, he just hated knowing that they knew he’d need to do that. What was to stop them from acting fine? Nothing, Stiles reasoned which made it all the harder for the teen to make the small step of going downstairs. His interaction with Boyd had been confusing, he’d seen the memories. Seen what he’d done to the Beta and yet, not only did Derek say he hadn’t done anything but even Boyd had. The teens clothing wasn’t stained with blood, there wasn’t a scrap of cloth that was torn from his teeth or claws. No proof that he’d hurt the teen at all. 

Stiles wanted more proof, he needed to see Erica, Isaac, and Scott. The memories he had of attempting to attack Scott hurt, they were best friends. Had grown up together and were practically brothers, but none of that had mattered to the cat. It had lashed out at Scott for some unknown slight that even Stiles wasn’t privy to. Stiles’ had seen how the cat reacted to Erica or rather didn’t, it all but ignored the girl. A perplexing reaction given how adamant it was against the others, but also gratifying to Stiles to know that she hadn’t been a target of the cat's rage. Isaac on the other hand...The teen had been attacked, there was nothing that the pack could say to alter that. Stiles had seen the memories, how it had tackled Isaac to the ground, paralyzed him in another instance and chewed on him. Whatever the pack might have thought was play surely hadn’t been, Stiles would never have done that to his friend. 

Letting out a huff, his breath sending a bit of dust out onto the floor Stiles muttered to himself. ‘I thought being a regular teenager was hard, knowing wolves and hunters and every other horrible thing that has come to town. Ha. That’s got nothing on this.’ Not for the first time Stiles wanted to go back and beat on the hunters who were responsible for all of this, they’d wanted to kill him and instead they’d turned him into this...Thing. Groaning Stiles shifted around in the closet, the tight confines would have normally made him feel claustrophobic but now they just felt safe. It took a bit of maneuvering to turn about but once he had it was cozy. Laying his head on his paws, the teen let his mind wander. What was he going to do?

 


	25. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> READ THE NOTE!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THE NOTE!!!

Hey everybody,

 

So as I've warned in the past there will be times where I might miss posting a chapter, unfortunately, this week is one of those weeks. I didn't have enough time to do my re-writes and so there will be no chapter this week.

Things are getting tight in the story with what content I have available for edits and the stuff that I need to entirely re-write. So please keep in mind that edits might be sporadic as I sort things out.

I will NOT abandon this story and I WILL be posting at least two chapters a month, I just can't guarantee every Sunday as I have so much work to do on this particular story. Sorry for the lack of a chapter, but trust me when I say the wait will be worth it. 

 

Thanks for your understanding-Sarcasm.


	26. Exploring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles rejoins the pack and begins to push his weight around with his new Bastili form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW, okay first off thank you for all of your patience. My intentions were always to post every Sunday as I do for the rest of my stories, but since I'm actively writing on this piece I've found that there will be delays. 
> 
> Now, the majority of this stems from that question I asked everyone earlier, about whether or not the Argents should be largely involved or just the pack. Because of the choices the readers made I had to re-work a shit ton of stuff. Thus, all the chapters I had pre-written are basically in the trash can now. 
> 
> The changes I made will make this story even better, I know this, but it will mean further delays. I'm shooting for a chapter every two weeks, so you most likely won't get another chapter next Sunday. Sorry for the wait, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Stiles yawned, surprised to have found that he had fallen asleep. Shifting inside the tight confines of Derek’s closet, the teen perked up an ear when he heard the teens down below. Whatever movie they’d been watching when Stiles fell asleep had obviously changed to something else. He must have slept through the entirety of the first movie, not that it was particularly bad that he did, it was just surprising. Stiles let out a soft huff, the breath ghosting his paw and stirring up a bit of dust. 

Now that he was awake, Stiles was finding himself wide awake. Idly he wondered if the Bastili was like other cats, sleep 19 hours a day and then run amok for the other 5. Stiles couldn’t help but rationalize that he felt the urge to move now, the gentle confines of the closet no longer as appealing as they had been. Letting out an annoyed huff Stiles rose to his feet, slinking from the darkened closet into the wider world of the loft. He glanced around a bit despite knowing that everyone was downstairs, his eyes landing on the plastic sheeting that Boyd and Derek had put up to keep the wind and rain out while Derek searched for a new window. Stiles felt guilty for that, but he had to admit that he would have done it all over again if nothing more than to have had the space to clear his head. 

Twisting away from the broken window, Stiles crept as close as he dared to the railing, he wasn’t so bold as to go down the stairs, no it was much too soon for that. Instead, Stiles peered through the upper railing down into the loft space below. The Beta’s were strewn about on the various furniture, all watching whatever movie had been picked on the laptop. A small shift of his head and Stiles found where Derek was, his chair, the one by the large windows that made up one wall of the loft. He should have figured, but it was always entertaining to watch the Alpha seclude himself into that tiny space that was ‘his’. No one else dared to use that particular chair, respecting that it was Derek’s place in the room when he wasn’t in one center of the loft with the others. 

Stiles stared down at the pack, watching them all cautiously, none of them appeared to be worse for wear but Stiles knew that appearances could be deceiving, especially when you had super-human healing. Stiles laid down, his nose poking through the gap between one of the metal bars. He continued to stare down at the pack, his friends, watching them as they were ignorant of his presence. 

 

********

 

The pack was engrossed with their movie, unaware of the creature looming just up above staring down at them. They kept ribbing on Scott for his choice in movie, the Alpha was putting up with it only because he had to admit that it was funny. 

“Like come on, anyone with half a brain wouldn’t go into that water.” Erica exclaimed while huffing at the imagery playing out on the laptops screen.

“It’s a movie.” Scott defended for what felt like the hundredth time.

“A movie that is inaccurate.” Erica shot back.

“What? You’re surprised that a giant killer shark is inaccurate.” Scott snorted.

“No, I think she means all the stupid people swimming in the water with the giant killer shark.” Isaac replied, seeing Boyd nod to back him up.

Erica smirked, it was clear she was winning this argument. Scott glared back at her haughty expression, he hated it when she was a ‘know it all’. “Yeah, well people are stupid. No one out there would believe there is a giant killer shark.”

“No.” Erica agreed. “Until like the third dead person being chomped on...Then you got no excuse.”

Isaac and Boyd nodded.

Scott sighed. “Guys, its a movie.”

“Inaccurate movie.”

Scott glared at Isaac who was now siding with Erica. “You made us watch Sharknado.”

The teen snickered, he had enjoyed the looks of horror on his packmates as they watched the satirical movie.

“Yeah, but that’s obviously not meant to be taken seriously.” Erica defended.

Scott threw his arms up in the air. “There’s no reasoning with you people.”

“Four.”

All eyes turned towards Boyd only to see the teen point at the laptop screen. “Four people chomped.” The teen elaborated.

Erica and Isaac laughed as Scott put his head in his hands. “Derek help.”

The older Alpha didn’t even bother to look up from the book, instead choosing to throw out. “Five.”

Scott pulled his head up out of his hands to look over across the couch. “What?” The Beta’s likewise was staring back at the Alpha.

“They’re eating you alive.” Derek glanced up from his book, a wry smirk on his face.

“Not cool dude.” Scott glowered.

“Don’t call me dude.”

Scott waved a hand at him, twisting his attention back around to point at Erica. “Shut it.”

She grinned. “Don’t worry Scott, we won’t let the big bad shark get you.”

Isaac was laughing uproariously at the Alpha’s look of betrayal, none of them particularly feeling bad for him as there had been quite a few times where Scott ruined their movies with the same flair for calling out fakeness as Erica had just portrayed. 

Everyone’s head jerked towards the sudden noise that hadn’t fit in with their own laughter, a chittering, their eyes locked onto the Bastili who was staring down at them through the iron bars of the upper railing of Derek’s bedroom.

Scott wasn’t stupid, he knew better than to act shocked at his friend's sudden appearance, despite wanting to. Instead, he glared as if nothing had changed between them all. “Ha Ha. You screamed the first time the dead body came out of the capsized ship.” Stiles chitterings broke off, the cat huffing down at him. Scott smirked when he got his point across. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Scott gave a nod.

Stiles tilted his head a bit, calling back needlessly. ‘You had to hold my hand through alien.’ Stiles knew that the pack would have immediately turned on the Alpha if they could hear him, instead all he got was confused looks at the grumbling noises he made.

“Come down and finish the movie with us.” Isaac called up hopefully. “We might even get to inform Scott of all the other flaws and never have to watch it again.”

“You like Jaws.” Scott called out in irritation.

Isaac shrugged. “I like watching Erica torture you more.”

Erica cackled at that, not the least bit repentant as she called out. “Yes! I am so in charge of movie time from now on.”

Scott looked up towards the Bastili. “Save me dude.”

The cat snorted. ‘Save yourself.’ Stiles pulled his head back, prepared to twist away from the railing when he paused at hearing Erica shout up at him.

“He doesn’t want to watch cause he’d been too tempted by the giant tuna fish on the screen.”

Stiles twisted sharply to glare down at her. ‘First off, ew and no. Second off, that’s not a tuna fish, it’s a great white shark.’

The pack stared up as the cat made a series of noises down at Erica who was staring up at the beast with a smile. They might not be able to understand whatever words all those noises meant, but Erica had a good idea of the jist of it. “You’re so grumpy.” She smirked.

‘Grumpy? Seriously? I’m not grumpy, you’re grumpy.’ Even Stiles had to admit that wasn’t his best come back, but thankfully the pack couldn’t understand him and for all they knew he’d just ripped into Erica hard. Stiles at least hoped that’s what they thought. 

“See, she’s doing it to you too.” Scott called out. “We need to band together man.” He smirked at Stiles.

The cat chuffed back at him. ‘You’re just saying that because you actually fear Erica a bit.’

“I’m going to say that’s an agreement.” Scott replied to the irritated animal.

‘You wish.’ The cat snorted.

Erica laughed as Stiles found a way to counter his best friends interpretation of his ‘words’. “Yeah, he doesn’t agree with you.”

Scott bemoaned such a thing. “Hey! He’s totally on my side, Jaws is a classic.”

“Jaws is inaccurate.”

“It’s a movie!” Scott threw out again.

Stiles watched amused as Scott failed to convince Erica that the flaws in the movie were okay because it was a movie. She wasn’t buying it, but Stiles had a feeling it wasn’t because she didn’t agree with him and more on the fact that she was enjoying making him suffer. She was mean that way and Stiles loved her all the more for it. 

Stiles couldn’t stop himself, against his better judgment and his previous desire to stay secluded from the pack the Bastili made his way down the stairs gaining the attention of the pack as he did so. The teen was too preoccupied with his current plan to notice how they froze upon Stiles joining them. Stiles trotting over to rub against Erica’s leg a moment before taking a seat, the Beta’s weren’t with it enough to figure out what that meant. Scott however was.

“Traitor.”

The Bastili chittered back at him, that appeared to be enough for the pack to break out of their stupor. Erica smiled, cautiously reaching out to touch the cat. Stiles twisted sharply, startling her, her hand hadn’t even touched him yet. Stiles stared at the teen's hand, glancing towards the girl's shocked face before trailing back to her hand. Stiles had sensed that she was going to do something, but had been surprised to find that she was about to touch him of all things. Knowing how Derek had done the same thing back in the forest Stiles muttered aloud. ‘What’s with you people and wanting to pet me?’

Erica lowered her hand, unsure what the grumbles might mean as the cat glowered back at her. “Sorry.” She replied with a stilted tone.

Stiles snorted, twisting back around to glare at Scott, the other teen wasn’t sure what the glare was really for but chose to direct the conversation back to the movie. “You just sided with her because you enjoy watching her do this to me.”

The cat tilted its head a small degree before nodding. Scott's mouth gaped open at the clear display of an answer. The Bastili resumed chittering, amused by the look of surprise on his best friends face. This was fun.

“Six.”

All eyes turned towards Boyd who was pointing at the screen, Stiles twisted his head as well. Watching as the character was eaten by the shark, despite the film having been a serious one he couldn’t help but find humor in it now. After all, a giant killer great white had nothing on a Kanima. He chittered in amusement at the dying fellow in the movie.

“Dude, I don’t think you’re supposed to enjoy death by shark.” Isaac muttered even as he never tore his eyes off of the movie.

‘That’s what you think like Scott said you made us watch Sharknado and you enjoyed each and every death there.’

The pack didn’t comment on the animal's noises, assured that it was just Stiles attempting to speak with them. The words were lost, but based on the tone in the grumbles it was clear that Stiles wasn’t upset. 

“I wonder how much fake blood they needed for that.” 

Stiles twisted his head a bit, staring at the bloody water. ‘Don’t know, probably a lot...That’s definitely more than what a human has in their body. Gotta love Hollywood.’

Isaac nodded as if he could understand the cat, sure that whatever Stiles was saying would have gone along with his question.

Stiles inwardly smirked to himself when he saw Isaac react like that, his eyes never leaving the screen but acting as if Stiles was sitting right there talking to him despite the clear difference in their current languages. 

“That’s a bad way to go.” Erica muttered as they watched the movie come towards its end. They all made faces as Quint was being eaten alive, the gruesome scene playing out as the pack watched on in silence.

Stiles twisted away from it, bored of the movie and all the bloodshed going on. He slinked his way around the couch, leaving the Beta’s who were too occupied with the movie unaware. Silently he padded his way towards Derek, Stiles smirked when he felt the man jump as he rubbed against his leg.

Derek looked down at the Bastili who had just startled him, he’d been too engrossed with the book having been under the belief that Stiles was with the pack watching the movie. He’d been glad when Stiles came down from his bedroom, finally coming back to be with the pack. Joking with them despite his current predicament, now, the cat was sitting before him having finished his rubbing. They stared back at each other for a moment before Derek uttered.

“Done watching the horrible shark movie?”

Stiles gave a nod, knowing that it was a far clearer answer than him actually attempting to talk with the Alpha. Derek smirked at the simple reply when the teen didn’t move to do anything else but stare at him Derek returned to his reading. 

Stiles glowered when Derek went back to his book, he shouldn’t take offense to it he knew, but the Alpha was ignoring him. Maybe not intentionally but Stiles didn’t like that the book was more intriguing than himself. Just because they couldn’t speak traditionally didn’t mean that Stiles was prepared to be ignored or at least dismissed. Without thinking about it further, Stiles came forward again and rubbed against the man's leg. Derek lowered the book once more, watching as Stiles rubbed against him only to twist about and do it again. Frowning at the action, the Alpha muttered. “What are you doing?”

The cat paused, looking up at him. Derek frowned when the cat just stood there standing back at him. Sighing Derek advised the teen. “Go finish the movie with the others, I’m just going to be reading.” The Alpha figured that wouldn’t be entertaining enough for the Bastili given its previous reaction to his attention leaving it. 

Stiles huffed. ‘Rude. Here I am trying to talk with you and you go and choose and dusty old book.’ Leaning forward Stiles nosed at the book on Derek’s lap, snorting when the Alpha picked it up to prevent him from doing anything.

“It’s old.” Derek explained when he was glared at.

Huffing Stiles muttered petulantly. ‘So? I’ve handled old things before, wasn’t like I was going to chew on the damn thing.’

Derek stared down at the Bastili, at an impasse without being able to understand what the boy's grumbles meant. Sighing Derek lowered the book once more to his lap and asked. “What do you want Stiles?”

Stiles wasn’t sure what he wanted, other than for Derek to pay attention. Granted the Alpha didn’t have anything to pay attention to, Stiles wasn’t doing anything particularly intriguing and the teen knew it. Still, some part of Stiles wasn’t content to be ignored, least of all for a book. Being so bold, the Bastili set its chin on the man’s kneecap, waiting for something despite not knowing what.

Derek stared at the cat, perplexed as to why Stiles was suddenly laying his head on him. Staring blankly back at him as if he was waiting for something, Derek didn’t know what though, and it wasn’t as if the teen could tell him. Deciding it was better to do something over doing nothing, the Alpha stretched out a hand and surprisingly was allowed to stroke the cats head. His fingers sinking into the plush fur as he stroked between the cat’s ears, well away from the beginnings of the cat's quills. Not that Derek particularly feared them, they were laying docilely against the cats back. 

It wasn’t until he felt through his pant leg the small vibrations of the cats dawning purr that Derek smirked, using his free hand to pick up the book he held it aloft while continuing to stroke Stiles head. Derek had no idea why the teen would want to be petted of all things, but it was a simple enough request, if not an odd one. Then again Stiles had always been a bit odd, Derek reasoned and with a smirk, he returned to his reading and entertained the Bastili single handily. 

 

**********

 

Scott looked over towards Derek when he noticed that Stiles wasn’t next to Erica anymore, he’d already searched the rest of the room only to find no trace of his best friend. He smirked upon seeing the other Alpha petting the Bastili’s head all while reading a book, not wanting to draw unwanted attention to either. Scott nudged Isaac who was the closest to him and mimed a finger in front of his mouth. He pointed to the others, Isaac was confused but did as asked. When all the Beta’s were looking at him he pointed, they twisted about until they caught sight of Derek and Stiles. 

“Who wants to pick out the next movie?” Scott questioned without pause.

Erica smirked, already knowing what the Alpha was going for. Act like normal. “It’s Isaac’s turn.”

The blonde smirked, getting up to snatch the laptop in order to sort through the options. The pack groaned when they saw the opening title coming across the screen, Isaac sat back proud of himself.

“Alright, so who wants to start?” Scott asked even as he watched the beginning of home alone.

“Why are you making us watch this?” Erica stated without answering Scott's question.

Isaac shrugged. “It’s funny.”

“It’s juvenile.” Erica replied.

Isaac gave her a look. “You made us watch Lilo and stitch.”

Boyd shrugged backing up his girlfriend. “It’s funny too.”

Erica gave a sharp nod.

“Give it up man, there’s no winning with her...Also, can we agree that these guys would be dead?”

The group chuckled.

“Most likely.” Boyd murmured.

“No, that iron thing...That’ll kill somebody.” Erica replied even as they watched the kids family depart to the airport without him.

“And the blowtorch to the head wouldn’t?” Scott challenged.

“Nah, you’d just lose all your skin, you’d live.”

“I think that’s worse.” Scott stated coolly.

“Oh definitely.” Isaac agreed. “But you wouldn’t be dead.”

“Wish you were.” Erica giggled as Kevin sledded down the stairs.

Isaac gave Scott a pointed look, jerking his thumb towards Erica who was now thoroughly enjoying the movie. Scott rolled his eyes, he wasn’t surprised in the least. Erica had a penchant for arguing things only to secretly or in this case not so secretly enjoy them. 

As the movie played out, the pack talked, calling out inaccuracies simply because they could and that’s what made watching movies together. The debate got heated when the would-be burglars started getting hurt in a variety of ways.

“Kid would totally be dead by now.” Isaac gestured towards the film. “One bullet and it’s done.”

“They don’t have guns.”

“He did.” Isaac replied. “All they needed to do was shoot him.”

Scott glanced between Isaac and Erica who were now bickering over the burglar's prospects at shooting a minor. He caught Boyd’s eye only to have the Beta sigh and shake his head, Scott grinned. 

Movement had Scott and the others twisting about, Stiles was on the prowl apparently. The teen sauntering into the kitchen, going around the island and beyond their line of sight.

“Dude, you hungry?” Scott shouted.

The cat didn’t answer him, instead surprising them all by jumping up onto the counter. Scott laughed as he watched his best friend use a paw to turn on the tap in the sink. Leaning down to lap at the running water.

“Stiles get down.” Derek gruffly ordered even as he climbed from his chair. The Bastili had pushed his hand aside not a moment ago before trailing off, Derek had been under the assumption that he’d go and rejoin the rest of the pack. That was until he’d heard Scott call out to him. 

Making his way to the island, coming into the kitchen Derek came forward to nudge the cat out of the way to shut off the water. Derek growled when Stiles twisted to bare his teeth at him, going back to his drinking when the Alpha stayed away.

Erica laughed. “Yeah, you show him Stiles, that’s your water.”

Derek glowered back at his Beta, Erica was too busy laughing at him to find any real threat in it. Turning back to the cat who was ignoring him, Derek reached out and gave a small shove to Stiles, the cat hissed as it anchored itself to the counter-top. Refusing to budge as it continued to drink, Derek scowled.

“We can get a dish.” He muttered.

Stiles pulled his head up from the water to give him a seething look, Derek sighed. “You don’t belong on the counters.”

Stiles chuffed, going back to lathing at the water. His ear twitched when he heard someone running up. Stiles twisted sharply, his quills bristling in preparation for an attack only to still when Stiles registered it was Isaac. The blonde didn’t appear to take the loss of control to heart, he was smiling back at him. Glancing over to Derek as he stated. “Cat’s like running water.” Isaac looked to Stiles. “Or ya know, drinking from a bowl sucks.”

Stiles chittered, taking a step forward to scent the boy. He didn’t appear hurt, but Stiles knew that they healed. Just like Boyd, the boy hadn’t changed clothing and other than the three holes where the quills had pierced and the small amount of blood that had come with that attack there was no other signs of a mauling. Stiles lowered his head to sniff at the bloody part of the boy's shirt, Isaac frowned before it dawned on him.

“Dude it’s fine.” He waved a hand at Stiles as the cat lifted his head to glower back at him. “It was my fault, I scared you...You didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Isaac’s right.” Derek interceded when it looked like Stiles might make a break for it. “He crept up on you and you jumped.”

Stiles looked between the pair, uncertain, Isaac was smiling as if nothing was wrong. As if he hadn’t been paralyzed at all, but Stiles knew better. He’d seen the memory of the boy laid out on the floor, of the Bastili chewing on him. His eyes sought out the teen's shoulder, there wasn’t any sign of the Bastili’s prior abuse. Stiles eyes locked with Isaac’s as the teen silently pleaded to his friend. ‘Please Isaac, don’t lie okay? I-I need to know the truth.” The small grumbles that left him had Isaac frowning, ultimately he shrugged.

“I got nothing dude.” The blonde smirked. “Other than your kinda grumpy like Erica said.”

Stiles chuffed at that. ‘Not funny.’ Leaning forward carefully balancing himself on the counter-top Stiles sniffed once more at the boy's shirt for any other signs of the Bastili attacking the youth. He found nothing, jerking back Stiles twisted away from Isaac and hopped down from the counter. Slinking his way around the wolves and back into the broader expanse of the loft.

Derek sighed as he leaned forward to shut off the water, giving Isaac who looked crestfallen a smirk. They were working on it, it was clear to see that Stiles still wasn’t sold on the idea that he hadn’t hurt anyone but at least they were making some progress. Gently shoving Isaac back towards the others, Derek disregarded the sight of Stiles sprawled out on the floor, away from everyone.

“Go finish your movie.” He nudged the teen, not giving a parting glance towards Stiles as he returned to his own activity. Stiles would come around, Derek was sure of it, he just needed some time to clear his head. Picking up the book, Derek got comfortable once more and began to pick up where he’d left off.

 

*******

 

Despite all the accumulating evidence, all the facts that said that he wasn’t a monster...Stiles still felt horrible. Maybe it wasn’t in the same way, but he still did. If the Bastili side of him hadn’t really hurt the pack, in some strange way it had been bonding with them than what did that say about Stiles? He’d run off the first chance he’d gotten, made everyone worry about him, hid from them. Stiles let out a long breath, a huff of air that ruffled the fur of his arm. It tickled in some second-hand way, the ruffling of the fur was different than the sensation of someone stroking your arm. It vibrated or at least something close to it. 

Stiles tilted his head up a hair, hearing the sounds of a movie being re-started, his earlier distraction of the pack having come to an end the longer he lay there apparently. He watched from the sidelines as the pack enjoyed the movie, silently, there was no more happy bantering. Stiles felt guilty for that too. Closing his eyes, Stiles wondered if he would be so lucky to magically wake up from this nightmare. He knew he wouldn’t but god would that have been wonderful. 

Stiles laid there, sprawled out on the floor of the loft idly listening to the background noise of the others, the sounds of their breathing, their heartbeats, the small shifts they made to get comfortable. The sounds of the movie playing, of book pages turning, all of it was some composition of noise that spoke of the pack. His pack, Stiles realized. It was supremely calming to just listen, a new sound reached his ears shortly after he gave into the comforting sounds of the pack. 

Opening his eyes to try and figure out what this new sound was, Stiles paused. His paws stilling their previous movements embarrassed Stiles looked around only to sigh in relief when no one had apparently caught onto the fact that he was kneading the floor like most cats did when happy. God, could this get any worse? Stiles knew better than to tempt fate with such a question, but truly, he didn’t think it could. Wanting to distract himself from the embarrassing fact that he did, in fact, act like a cat, or worse prevent it from happening again when someone was watching. Stiles rose to his feet, shook out his fur while steadfastly ignoring the rest of the pack because he knew they were watching him now. 

Stiles prowled forward, around the spanse of the room, sniffing at things as he went and taking in how his new sharper vision locked onto minute details. Things that he wouldn’t have ever seen even if he’d been given a magnifying glass, there were little hairline cracks in the flooring, dust filled them, Stiles remembered that the entire building had at one point in time just been makeshift housing for industrial workers. Made sense that it wasn’t exactly the Ritz, and with how old the building was Stiles really should have been surprised in how well the place was holding up. Stiles himself, however, was too busy staring into the cracks, following them as if they lead him somewhere. 

Stiles grimaced letting out a small hiss as he hit his head, pulling back he scowled at the offending object that he’d bumped into while following the cracks in the floor. It was just a small shelf that had been built into the wall, Derek had a few books on it, but none of that mattered as Stiles hissed at it. Stupid hard surface getting in his way.

“Dude, are you offended by books now?”

Stiles twisted his head sharply to stare back at Isaac who was smiling over the back of the couch, huffing Stiles replied. ‘No, the stupid thing hit me...Or I hit it, doesn’t matter, the point it is hurt.’

Isaac, of course, didn’t understand, he just continued to smile as if he was waiting for the cat to say something more in its unique grumbles. Stiles bared his teeth at the teen before stalking further down the trail he’d been on before being rudely interrupted. Stiles huffed when he heard the others laughing at his reaction to the books. They totally didn’t understand, as he prowled further around the room, Stiles came back around to the large window that made up a good spanse of the one wall of the loft. Tilting his head a bit, Stiles decided that he wanted to see just how entrancing the already pretty light through the window really was. 

Hopping up onto the ledge of the window, Stiles trailed down the length of it, chittering a bit as the new colors of light as it hit small imperfections in the glass reached his eyes. It was pretty, something the likes he never would have seen if he had just been human. As he came to the opposite end of the window, Stiles stopped. Derek was staring at him from where he sat in his chair before the window, the book that was apparently about him, laying on his lap as he watched Stiles.

‘What?’ Stiles chittered. ‘It’s pretty.’

Derek smirked as if he could understand the small noises the teen was making towards him, he didn’t, but given who it was ‘speaking’ to him, he had a fair idea of what the conversation might have been like. Shaking his head, Derek prepared to leave the teen to his own entertainment once more. A glance towards the couch showed that the pack was watching, but staying quiet so as not to ‘tip’ off the Bastili. Given how he heard a hiss not two seconds after he turned to watch them, Derek figured Stiles was now aware. The pouted expressions before the other teens twisted back around was also good evidence. Chuckling a bit, Derek turned only for his eyes to widen as Stiles had come closer and was now standing with his front two legs on the arm of his chair, the cat’s face just a few inches from his own.

Derek glared back at the amused cat. “Get down.”

The cat chittered softly at him before coming forward to bash their heads together, Derek sighed at the burst of pain that came from the harsh blow. Opening his eyes when the beast was no longer accosting his head, Derek waited. Stiles was staring right back at him as if he was waiting for Derek to do something. The Alpha turned his head back towards the book as he righted it in his hand and prepared to return to reading. Derek’s eyes widened a hair when the cat when Stiles leaned over and rubbed his head against his own before hopping down as he’d asked him to before. The cat didn’t trot off in laughter as Derek had anticipated he would, no, Stiles just continued his exploration of the room as if he hadn’t just aggressively scent marked the Alpha. 

Derek reached up and rubbed a hand across the area Stiles had scented him, a small smirk came to his face as his eyes trailed after the cat. He was curious to know if Stiles knew what he was doing or if it was just some instinct from his Bastili nature. Derek wasn’t sure which was worse, to be honest, a Stiles who was just giving into animalistic tendencies or a Stiles who purposefully scent marked him as if...As if Derek was his. Swallowing tightly, Derek forced his gaze back onto the pages of the book, he refused to let his mind wander like that again. Stiles didn’t mean anything by it even if he was aware that he was scent marking Derek. He didn’t know how it all meant, having assured himself that Stiles was too innocent or at the very least oblivious in nature, Derek let his mind drift off from the idea of Stiles marking him as if they were...Something to each other. 

Having appropriately scent marked Derek, his inner Bastili rumbling in pleasure, Stiles made his way around the rest of the room. Following the telltale cracks in the flooring, his attention diverting to other places in the loft when something caught his pristine vision. Stiles hated to admit, he was easily distracted, cat or human, more so cat. 

Bored of his exploration, more because he’d been in the loft a thousand times before, and he’d run out of interesting things to stare at, Stiles made his way back towards his friends. Inwardly trying to rally his courage. ‘It’s just the pack’ He muttered to himself, Stiles bobbed his head, he had nothing to worry about. ‘They don’t seem to care that I hurt...That I might...’ Stiles huffed, this was far harder than he thought it might be. Then again there really was no manual on how to deal with becoming a supernatural cat, as he came around the room Stiles sat back on his haunches and observed his friends. 

They were once more absorbed in whatever movie it was they were watching, Stiles hadn’t paid any attention to the sounds coming from the laptop. Far more concerned with his friends and what was going on with himself. The pack was curled up on the sofa and chairs, Erica was reclining back against one part of the couch, her legs thrown over Isaac’s lap, not that the other Beta seemed to mind. Boyd was in the chair directly to Erica’s right, also not bothered by the fact his girlfriend was being cozy with another person. Stiles didn’t really blame the wolf, it wasn’t like Erica would need protecting and Isaac wasn’t about to put the moves on her. Tease her, yes, flirt with her, no.  Scott was to Isaac’s left, in the only other chair as the coffee table and laptop stood in the middle of everyone. 

Beyond the couch Derek sat in his chair, Stiles really had a good vantage point from where he was and he was half tempted to remain there if it weren’t for the fact that he wanted to be closer to his friends he might have. Stiles knew that Derek was right though, and if he hadn’t hurt anyone then Stiles needed to double check to see. If Derek was telling the truth like Stiles inwardly prayed he was, then Stiles was going to feel both better and worse. Mostly because he would have overreacted to nothing and made them all worry about him, but the slim chance that the Alpha was lying was more than enough to keep Stiles on his toes. 

With no bravery to speak of and nothing left to hide behind, Stiles forced himself to rise once more to his feet and slink forward. Stiles ignored the obvious fact that they had turned to see what he was doing as he drew nearer to them. Ignorance was bliss and all, doing his best to keep that in mind Stiles came closer until at long last he was in their bubble of space. 

Glancing up at his best friend Stiles huffed, despite how dramatic it made him seem. ‘This all blows just so you know.’

Scott’s brows rose at the cats grumbling, he knew Stiles was trying to talk to him, but the Alpha hadn’t a clue as to what the Bastili was actually saying. “Umm-”

Stiles gave a snort, sounding far more like a sneeze as it came through his new form. Seeing an opportunity to get around all this awkward stance they seemed to be in, Stiles took it. Startling Scott as he leaped up onto the arm of the chair, circling to the back of it where he flopped down. Allowing his limbs to trail off of the surface as if he was some kind of leopard lounging in a tree. His tail flicked back and forth from where it had fallen over the side of the chair. His intelligent green eyes leveled with those if his shocked best friend. ‘What?’

Scott blinked a few times before smiling. “Alright, but I’m using you as a pillow.” As if to test that theory, he leaned back. Stiles huffed in amusement, although he was nervous about Scott getting so close to the quills that lined parts of his body, Stiles found that it wasn’t so bad. the warmth of the teen pressing into him was far more relaxing than stressful, Scott canted his head up a bit to see what Stiles thought of his action. The cat laid its head down, closing its eyes. Stupified, but not going to question it, Scott twisted back around, offering a pleased smile to the Beta’s.

The group returned to the movie, not a word said about the Bastili that was presently being used a pillow by Scott. They were all just happy to know that Stiles was once more among them, even if it did seem tentative. 

 

*********

 

The pack spent the rest of the afternoon like that, enjoying the silent company of one another or rather silent company of Stiles. The pack was nowhere near silent, especially when it came to arguing about new things to watch, the odd chitter of amusement they got from the Bastili just made it all the more peaceful. Like before, before Stiles was a Bastili and they’d been forced to face everything before things changed. Not that things were bad per se, not now that Stiles was once more safe in the loft with them but it wasn’t the same, the dynamic of everything had shifted. 

It was as night was coming upon them that the pack realized just how long it had been since they had a meal. That’s when the argument shifted once more, this time about what to make. The culinary skills of the pack were varied, some like Derek could handle just about anything and then there was Scott who was the polar opposite, he could burn water. Everyone else fell somewhere in between the two Alphas. Isaac knew how to cook, but that was more just a reflection on his previous home life, being forced to be at his father's beck and call had made things like cooking a hit or miss when it came to triggering bad memories. The blonde still enjoyed cooking with the pack, but sometimes he kept his distance and they all understood. Boyd didn’t have a problem when it came to cooking meats, but everything else he was pretty shit at, and Erica was more aware on the veggies and fruit side of things, her mom having been all about nutrition as a way to ‘cure’ her epilepsy. They still had a good laugh about that one. 

“Stiles can probably only eat meat...Right, Stiles?”

Stiles lifted his head from where he’d been relaxing behind Scott. ‘Dude do these look like they’re made for salad?” He made a good show of baring his teeth.

Isaac laughed at the clear display. “Yeah, those look like meat eaters if I ever saw em.”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Meat-eaters? Seriously?”

Isaac shrugged, pointing a finger towards Stiles as he spoke. “He does not look like the salad type right now.”

Stiles gave a nod, backing up his friend. ‘Gotta agree Erica, don’t think salad would work out very well for me. Not that I’m particularly looking forward to being made a spectacle of when it does come time to eat something.’ Stiles mused that it wasn’t going to be pretty no matter what he did. 

“Fine. So what do we make?” Erica gave up relatively easily but only because Scott had given her a look that clearly depicted that he didn’t want to rock the boat. How arguing over salad could upset Stiles she didn’t know, but she did agree with the Alpha when it came to keeping Stiles here with them rather than slinking around the loft. 

“We have steak.” Boyd chimed in, he knew because he’d looked through the kitchen earlier. All eyes turned to him for a moment before the argument about whether or not that was viable for Stiles came up.

Stiles rolled his eyes, how would steak upset him? It was meat, wasn’t it? Of course, it was, and it wasn’t as if they didn’t have cows in Egypt. Cause Stiles was 99.9% sure that cows existed everywhere on the planet in some capacity, other than like the north and south pole or Antartica, but those didn’t count. Stiles twisted his head, rubbing it against Scott and earning a chuckle before the man’s hand came up to pet his head.

“I know.” Scott whispered. “But let them argue.” He met his friend's bright green eyes. “They’re just worried about you.”

Stiles huffed even as he allowed his friend to pet him, Stiles would have loved to act appalled by such a thing but frankly...It felt nice. So Stiles let Scott pet him as he grumbled back. ‘You’re just too lazy to put a stop to it...You enjoy watching them.’

Scott nodded along as if he understood his friend, despite the platitude, Stiles approved of his friend's attempts to include him in things. 

In the end, it was Derek who called a halt to all the arguing when he got up out of his chair and called out to Boyd. “Get the steak.”

The teen nodded, doing as the Alpha asked even as his girlfriend and Isaac complained at being overridden by the Alpha. Derek didn’t care. Stiles chittered back at his friends who were pouting, Erica pointed a sharp finger at him.

“Not a word out of you.”

Stiles snorted. ‘How would you know if I’d said anything?’ The grumbles that the Bastili actually let out while ‘talking’ should have been a dead giveaway, but Stiles chose to ignore that. 

Erica glowered. “That sounded like a hell of a lot more than one word.”

Stiles bared his teeth in a smile, Scott chuckled, his hand coming up to tossel his friends head around. Stiles purred, twisting about to headbutt Scott. The hard clack had everyone wincing, Scott including as Stiles rose without any appearance of the action hurting him. Jumping down the Bastili made his way into the kitchen where Boyd and Derek were pulling things out of the fridge. Boyd jumped when the cat suddenly rubbed against him, having figured that Stiles was still with the group, he looked down and smiled. Stiles purred a bit before tearing himself away to come across to where Derek was trimming the steak, Stiles rubbed against the Alpha only to receive a curt.

“It’s not cooked go away.”

Huffing, Stiles decided on a whim to make his presence known in a more obvious fashion. He sprawled across the man’s feet, Derek looked down sharply when he felt the warm underbelly of the Bastili, the beast's weight burying his feet. Stiles tilted his head back up towards the Alpha who he knew was staring up at him. 

‘Problem?’

Derek sighed and returned to his work, ignoring whatever it was Stiles was trying to get across with his actions. Stiles smirked to himself before allowing his tail to come around and smack the Alpha’s leg, his quills were all docile and having a better feel for controlling them Stiles felt more reassured that he could push his weight around a bit. Derek froze a moment, looked down another and scowled.

“Don’t.” Derek wasn’t truly afraid of being paralyzed, he could tell from how Stiles had just smacked him that the teen was doing it for attention and not with the intention of actually hurting him. He knew better, Stiles wasn’t about to do anything to hurt them, after all, that was what had brought about all of this in the first place. 

Stiles chittered. ‘Make me.’ Swatting the Alpha’s leg once more, Stiles made a yowling sound when Derek lifted his gaze over the counter and demanded. “Scott come get him.”

‘Hey now! He is not my keeper I’ll have you know, I can take care of myself and right now I’m deeming this a time to piss you off. I’m winning FYI.’ Stiles glared when he saw Scott coming into the kitchen, baring his teeth at his friend. ‘Stay back Scottie.’

Scott smirked at the sight of Stiles, the teen sprawled out across Derek’s feet annoying the older Alpha in a way that just spoke of Stiles own mannerisms. “I don’t think I can lift that dude.”

“Don’t call me dude, he’s not that heavy.” Derek was sure that the cat's weight would be little consequence, but then again Scott was only saying that because he found the whole thing funny. Derek glared. “Take him back into the living room.”

Chuckling Scott waved a hand. “Come on man, don’t step on Derek’s toes or he won’t give you any steak when it’s done...I don’t want to see you try and choke down carrots or something.” 

Stiles was sure that he wasn’t able to pull off the affronted look that he felt giving, he was not going to try and eat vegetables while trapped in his Bastili form. That was just borrowing trouble, like all those idiots who tried to claim their cats and dogs were vegetarians. When Derek shifted his feet beneath him, Stiles huffed and rose...By his choice of course. Rubbing against Derek’s legs a moment longer. ‘Spoil sport.’ Before trailing off towards Scott, the teen chuckled as Stiles passed him by only to run and jump onto the back of the chair once more.

“Don’t scratch the furniture.” Derek muttered when he heard the cat’s claws grip into the chair.

Stiles twisted about to glare at the Alpha. ‘Dude already warned you about all of this, your just going to have to put up with me until we fix me...Cause I cannot change back and this is now my playground.’

Derek wasn’t paying attention though he most likely understood that the Bastili’s current grumblings were directed at himself, Scott just shook his head as he came back towards the couch and chairs. Petting Stiles back as he walked around to sit in the chair once more, Stiles laid his head down on his friend's shoulder. 

‘So mean.’

Scott nodded as if he’d heard him. “At least you’ll get steak now.”

‘True.’

Scott smirked at Erica and Isaac, both snickering at Stiles interactions with the others. Scott reached up to pet his friends head, all while keeping his gaze locked on Erica and Isaac. “So, what movie are we going to watch next?”

The arguing resumed.

 

*******

 

As embarrassing as dinner turned out to be for Stiles, the teen assured himself that he hopefully wouldn’t be forced to endure such a thing again if they could figure out what was wrong with him. Thus far no one had spoken of his inability to shift back, probably too focused by his being back with them. 

Either way, Stiles silently promised himself that he would never again be subjected to the scrutiny of his friends as he tore into a piece of steak and swallowed half of it whole as if it were merely a sip of water. The conversation that sprung up after that had been horrible, the pack might have found it amusing but Stiles did not. 

Now, after dinner and another movie had concluded the talk of sleeping arrangements was brought up. Technically the others could go back into town and sleep at their own prospective homes. No one even brought that little fact up, rather choosing to argue who got the spare bedroom and who got the couch and or chairs.  Stiles wasn’t included in this argument and the teen wasn’t sure if that was because they all stupidly thought he’d sleep on the ground or because they were waiting for his input, despite not being able to understand it. 

“Me and Boyd are taking the room, we can fit on the bed together.”

Isaac rolled his eyes at the girl's reasoning. “We all fit on the bed together remember? When we were crashing with Stiles.”

Scott chuckled as Isaac shot down the girl's simple explanation. “He’s got a point, but even if we let you have the spare bedroom, where would Isaac and I crash? There’s really only the couch, the chairs are-”

“Dibs.” Isaac sprawled over his half of the couch.

The pack laughed at the befuddled expression Scott wore for all of a minute before scowling at Isaac. “Hilarious.”

Stiles chittered. ‘It really was.’ He nodded as if to back up his own statement in case they didn’t understand what he thought of the blondes cunning. 

“Fine, Isaac gets the couch tonight, I get it tomorrow.” Scott declared with a clear concise tone.

Isaac shrugged as if it didn’t matter, Stiles figured that was because he’d find some way to win that argument come tomorrow evening. Either way, the group broke off into their destinations, Erica and Boyd trailing off down the hallway. Isaac and Scott pulling some spare blankets out of the linen closet and returning to their own ‘beds’. Derek made to climb the stairs and without even a second thought, Stiles took off after him. Overtaking the Alpha on the stairs, Derek scowled after the Bastili. Turning to glare over the handrail when Isaac shouted out to him.

“I think he’s calling dibs.”

Scott laughed at the blondes joke, Derek shook his head. “No, he’s not.” The clipped tone didn’t stop the other two teens from cracking up. Climbing the rest of the stairs, Derek was mildly surprised to find that Stiles hadn’t just climbed onto his bed as they all had assumed, rather the teen was folded up into the ledge of the window seal right above the head of the bed itself. 

Sighing at the apparent perch Stiles had chosen for himself, Derek muttered. “You’ll fall out of there in your sleep.”

Stiles twisted his head to regard the Alpha. “Sounds like your future problem more than mine. Cat’s land on their feet dude, not my fault you’ll be below me.’ He chittered in amusement.

Derek frowned a moment, assured that the teen was mocking him, but with no other recourse to respond Derek tore away to grab his pajama pants. The Alpha smirked when Stiles twisted away as if to give him privacy, nevermind that they hadn’t all seen each other in one state of undress over the course of their friendship. Fighting monsters had a way of destroying your clothing and modesty was often times put aside in the face of winning. Still, Derek found the action amusing, when he was dressed and his clothes thrown into a nearby hamper the man climbed into his bed.

Stiles twisted to look over the edge of his perch down at the Alpha, Derek stared straight up at him. “You fall on me and you’ll regret it.” Derek swore to the cat. Stiles canted his head to the side as if to ask what he’d do. “Just get down from there, I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with you on top of me.”

Stiles huffed. ‘Really? That’s what you’re worried about? Not the overall likelihood of being paralyzed from me falling on top of you? Great priorities Derek.’

Derek’s brow furrowed as he listened to the cat talk to him in its own way, what he wouldn’t do to be able to understand the teen. Tired and somewhat annoyed, Derek muttered. “Just get down.”

Huffing Stiles rose and leaped down from the perch he’d made for himself. Bouncing a bit on the bed as Derek rose up onto his elbows to watch the cat now that it wasn’t looming above him. Stiles twisted about, coming up to headbutt Derek. The Alpha chuckled at the common occurrence now, reaching up single-handedly to push the cat away as it rubbed against him.

“Go to bed.”

Stiles chittered a bit as he moved off from the Alpha’s personal space and flopped down at the side of the man. Derek stared at the teen a moment, unsure what to say let alone do in the face of Stiles apparent second choice of sleeping arrangement. Figuring it was better than the cat falling on him, Derek laid back down. A smirk coming to his face when he felt the cold nose brushing his fingers, Derek raised them enough to scratch at the Bastili’s bridge the small purr he got in reply had him saying. “Good night Stiles.”

The cat’s head burrowed down further into the bed, pushed up against Derek's hand as the feline's body lay against Derek. ‘Night Sourwolf.’

 


	27. Awkward moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles engages in some awkward behavior with Derek, the Alpha is forced to have an embarrassing conversation with the teen. Stiles makes Isaac suffer and in turn, is betrayed by something he holds dear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This every other week thing is saving my ass, so much stuff to edit. I literally had to edit over 20k in words this week for my weekly postings. But I'm glad it is time for a new chapter, some great stuff is in store and I'm eager to share it with you all.

Come morning, Stiles woke with a large stretch of his feline body, his claws springing forth in the full body motion. They fell back into their sheaths just as Stiles yawned, his impressive fangs on show despite no one looking. Opening his eyes, Stiles found Derek to still be asleep, he blushed internally at that, he’d fallen asleep next to Derek Hale, in Derek Hales bed. What had he been thinking?! Of course, the Alpha hadn’t seemed to mind, preferred it almost to when Stiles had threatened to sleep on the window ledge. 

Laying his head down among the covers, Stiles crawled forward just a hair so he could press his muzzle into the man’s arm. He took a deep breath, scenting Derek while the Alpha was unaware. Just as when he’d done it the previous day while the man was reading, the Alpha’s scent made his inner Bastilli purr. It was strange, foreign to Stiles to have such instincts towards the Alpha. Stiles wasn’t stupid, he knew that he’d harbored an insane crush on the man for years, but this was almost...Too much. 

It made him want to act, to chase the scent of the Alpha any chance he got. Derek wasn’t like the others, he didn’t smell like Oranges like Isaac did, or Cotton like Erica...No, Derek smelled like. His. Like Derek was his, but that made no sense whatsoever. Letting out a small huff, Stiles tensed when Derek shifted in his sleep a bit. Letting out a small sigh as he adjusted his head on the pillow, his arm moving up a hair on the blankets. Stiles remained frozen until he was absolutely sure that the Alpha wasn’t waking.

‘Shit, that was close.’ Stiles berated himself for nearly waking the Alpha.

Snuggling forward once more so that his muzzle was laying against the man, Stiles inhaled once more. The same thing arose to his senses, Derek was just...His. Annoyed by the mystery surrounding that and with no way to ask the pack, let alone Derek, Stiles settled into the blankets. Closing his eyes a moment as he breathed in the calming scent of the Alpha, Stiles was well prepared to fall back to sleep or so he assumed with how foggy his brain felt. That was probably why he was solely ignorant to the fact that his head was no longer laying on the blankets but instead moving in a reoccurring pattern, breathing partly through his mouth as his tongue trailed the man’s arm in between Stiles rubbing against the man. Stiles might have been horrified to find what he was doing, tongue bathing Derek Hale of all people, but he was caught up in a pleasant fog of endorphins. He was doing something altogether right, something Stiles might not have understood in his human sense but fell in line perfectly with his Bastilli ones. 

Derek frowned in his sleep, someone was bothering him. Nudging him as if to wake him but far too gentle to truly rouse him all in one go, sighing the Alpha prepared to tell off whoever it was annoying him. Peeling his eyes own in a hearty glare, Derek froze, sucking in a ragged breath as he registered not who, but what was nudging him. Stiles, but rather the Bastilli was nuzzling him, licking him and then rubbing against him again, scent marking him in some kind of perpetual ritual as the creature's eyes remained closed. Derek wasn’t sure if Stiles was awake and aware of what he was doing, but the Alpha knew that if Stiles was choosing to do this then they were going to need to talk about it...Swallowing, Derek made to move his arm as the first course of action to stopping the cat from continuing to lathe at his arm. 

The Alpha couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle when the Bastilli’s paw suddenly rose to fall over his shifting arm, pinning it in place. Stiles obviously wasn’t prepared to let him go, despite how amusing that was, Derek knew that it was time to wake the teen up as he truly didn’t think Stiles was awake, not after watching his actions. Shifting on the bed, his arm still pinned, Derek used his other arm to come around and pet the cat’s head.

“Stiles.” His voice was scratchy from just waking, he cleared it before calling out again. “Stiles.”

The cat’s ears shifted a bit, hearing him but not rousing their owner from his current task. Rolling his eyes, Derek continued to stroke the cats head, his fingers sifting through the silky fur. “You’re going to regret that.” He murmured more to himself than to Stiles, because he knew that Stiles was going to be mortified when he discovered what he had been doing. 

Derek was still trying to work past what the teen was doing and he was actually awake enough to see it. He wasn’t sure why the Bastilli felt the need to bathe him, scent mark him as it was. It was just more strange behavior, like the previous day he supposed. Scratching the space between the expressive ears, Derek called out. “Wake up.” Derek’s fingers came from within the fur to flick the cat's ear. It twisted sharply as the cat’s head rose and its eyes peeled open, its maw exposed in a grimace.

Derek smirked. “You awake now?”

Stiles huffed, licking his teeth. ‘What was that for?’ The teen glanced around a moment before settling his irritated expression onto Derek. The Alpha was still grinning back at him, huffing Stiles closed his mouth though his ears remained plastered against his head. Stiles watched as the man’s hand fell back to the bed, now that he’d achieved his goal of waking him.

‘Jerk.’ Stiles grumbled.

Derek wasn’t sure what Stiles was muttering about, but he ignored it in favor of stating. “You don’t know what you were just up to do you?”

Stiles frowned, what he was up to? What did Derek mean by that? Tilting his head to the side in the silent question, the cat watched on as Derek chuckled. The Alpha shook his head, choosing not to bring it up despite how amusing it might have been to mortify the teen.

“Nevermind.”

Letting out a chuff, Stiles laid his head back down, glaring up at the Alpha. ‘Rude, you wake me up and then laugh at me.’

Derek smiled at the cats grumbling, he did sound rather grumpy when he tried to talk. “Come on, since you woke me up we might as well get up.”

‘Excuse me? No, see you’re the one who woke me up.’ Stiles glared.

Derek ignored the petulant cat, Sitting up in bed and wiping at his arm, getting rid of the residual wetness left behind by the cat's attention. He twisted a hair when he saw that Stiles hadn’t moved, rolling his eyes Derek got up from the bed and went to gather some clothing for a quick shower. Stiles watched the Alpha leave the bed, glaring after him, assured that he was going to be left alone for a time Stiles closed his eyes. ‘Stupid Alpha.’

Derek glanced back before heading into the bathroom, he rolled his eyes upon seeing Stiles already back asleep. Figures, the cat would wake him up only to fall back to sleep. Derek enjoyed the hot shower, it helped to wake him up more, not to mention he was able to rid whatever spit Stiles had left on his arm. It was weird to know that the Bastilli in Stiles wanted to bathe him like they were pack members or he supposed Pride to one another. He knew that had been the goal, but it was niggling at the back of his mind. 

Coming out fresh from the shower, and clothed with only his damp hair to show for it. Derek walked over to throw his dirty laundry in the hamper before twisting about to stare at Stiles, the cat was asleep again. Shaking his head, he walked over and stroked the beasts head, giving it a little nudge to wake the boy up.

“Come on, you’ve slept in.”

Stiles grumbled as he was shaken, his head tilting upwards to glare at Derek. Oh, he was done with his shower. The wolfs hair was damp, but Stiles could have sworn that he’d just left for the shower not two seconds ago. Huffing at the time discrepancy, Stiles rose and gave a shake as if he needed to clear his fur of something, he didn’t, it just felt nice. Stiles rubbed against Derek a moment before hopping down, walking leisurely toward the stairs that would allow him to go and greet the rest of the pack.

Derek shook his head, setting about to make his bed and leaving Stiles to whatever it was that teen had planned for the others. Derek could tell that he was the only one awake, save Stiles, and knowing the teen as he did, it was only a matter of time before Stiles woke someone else.

 

********

 

Making his way down the stairs, Stiles glanced about. Isaac was sprawled out on the couch on his back, an arm hanging over the side of it. By the looks of the teen, he was deeply asleep, dead to the world and also drooling a bit. Chittering at the sight the blonde made, Stiles turned to look at his best friend. Scott couldn’t have possibly been comfortable, he was curled sideways on the chair. His legs hanging over the arm on one side as his head tilted back on the other. His body condensed in the center of the chair. 

Stiles glanced between the two, unsure who he wanted to wake. Seeing a prime opportunity, the teen trotted over and with no remorse leaped up, pouncing onto the other teen. The giant OOF that left the sleeping boy as he was forcefully woken had Stiles chittering in laughter as the teen rose up to cradle his stomach only to find that the Bastilli was sprawled out on top of him.

“You’re such a jerk.” Isaac groaned as his stomach complained about the prior abuse, the cat purred back at him as if he was totally okay with that sentiment. 

Scott jerked away when he heard the sudden shout, his tired eyes snapping open in time to see Isaac jerking upwards to cradle his gut only to see Stiles standing on it. He gave a small bark of laughter when he deduced what had happened. Hearing Isaac call his best friend a jerk as the cat laid down on top of him.

“That was cold man.”

Stiles twisted his head around to chitter at Scott. ‘No, it was awesome.’

Isaac shoved ineffectively at Stiles, the cat didn’t budge as its solid mass laid sprawled out on top of him. Groaning, Isaac fell back down to lay on the couch. “Hate you so much.”

‘No you don’t, you love me.’ Stiles retorted as he leaned forward to nuzzle the boy's chest.

Scott was laughing, doing his best to try and stifle it but acknowledging that he was failing in that given how Isaac had turned his head to glare at him. The Bastilli continued to rub its head back and forth across Isaac’s chest in some attempt to apologize.

Huffing, Isaac brought up a hand and petted Stiles. “Yeah yeah...I forgive you, get off.”

Stiles smiled to himself, laying his head down on the teen's chest. Isaac canted his head up to stare down at Stiles. “Dude, I’m awake.”

‘I am aware of that, I was the one to wake you up.’ Stiles grumbled back at the teen.

Isaac frowned, unsure what Stiles was trying to tell him. “Get up.”

Stiles let out a sneeze like snort, causing the blonde to grimace. “Ugh, man gross.”

Scott laughed as the teen wiped at his face even as the Bastilli chittered.

“What’s going on?” Derek came down the stairs, frowning when he saw Stiles spread out on top of Isaac as the teen wiped at his face.

“He sneezed on me.”

Rolling his eyes the Alpha walked past towards the kitchen, intent on getting some coffee. “And?” He stated benignly.

“That was after he jumped on Isaac’s stomach as a wake-up call.”

Derek smirked as he readied the coffee maker, that made more sense. Turning to lean on the counter, staring into the living room the Alpha called out. “I knew he was going to wake one of you.”

“Thanks for the heads up.” Isaac muttered sourly, even as he continued to try and push Stiles off of himself. Stiles just made noises that clearly depicted how amused he was, rubbing against the teen all while Isaac failed to get him to move.

Derek chuckled at Isaac’s failed attempts and Stiles prolonged sense of amusement at torturing the teen. By the looks of it, Stiles was enjoying himself thoroughly, the sound of coffee filling the coffee pot had the Alpha twisting away. He took notice of Scott entering the kitchen pulling two mugs down and coming over, a smirk on his face.

“Should have seen it man, Stiles full on jumped on him like some wrestler body slamming someone.”

Derek snorted at the comparison, he was sure the sensation of the Bastilli jumping right on his stomach hadn’t been pleasant. Derek wasn’t even sure how much Stiles weighed in his current form, he didn’t think it was equivalent to his human shape but one never knew. Pouring himself and Scott both a mug of coffee, the pair turned at the sound of a thud. Walking towards the counter, the two Alpha’s discovered what it had been. Isaac. The teen groaned as he got up, having fallen off the couch. Stiles was chittering even as he left the teen behind, trotting into the kitchen. 

Scott snickered around a sip of his coffee, Isaac sent him a dirty look. “I got him off.”

“Yeah by falling off the couch.” Scott jerked back nearly spilling coffee on himself a second later as Stiles jumped up onto the counter.

Isaac laughed at the startled Alpha, calling out to Stiles. “Yeah, show him, Stiles.”

The cat chittered. ‘Idiots.’

Scott glowered at his best friend even as Derek called out. “Get off the counter, Stiles.” 

Stiles disregarded the annoyed Alpha in favor of leaning forward, balancing precariously on the edge of the countertop towards Scott. The teen pulled back a hair. “Dude what?”

Isaac ran up to the counter, smiling. “I think he wants your coffee.”

Scott snorted. “Cat’s don’t drink coffee.”

Stiles glared, his lip pulling back as his ears flattened. ‘I’m not just a cat you jackass.’

Sighing Derek pushed Scott out of the way and reached to pull Stiles off of the counter, the cat dug his heels in and hissed, tail lashing as the end full of quills flared. Derek glared at the inherent threat. “Don’t.”

‘Give me some coffee.’ Stiles threatened back with a catty reply.

Rolling his eyes Scott shoved Derek back. “Fine, here.” Scott put his mug down. “I don’t think it’ll taste the same though.”

‘Scottie, coffee is coffee.’ Stiles crowed in silent victory as he leaned down to lap at the liquid only to pull back sharply as the ordinarily favored beverage bit his tongue. He snorted, shaking his head and licking his maw as if to rid the taste from his mouth. Scott and Isaac laughed at the teen's reaction, Stiles yowled a bit as he wiped at his mouth with a paw.

Derek sighed. “He tried to warn you.”

‘Ugh what the hell man.’ Stiles glowered down at the mug. ‘Coffee how could you betray me so?’

Scott took the mug back, pouring it down the sink all while wearing an indulgent smile. Stiles huffed, looking to Derek as if the Alpha should have fixed it. The Alpha ignored the silent plea for help, instead reaching out to pet the cats head and mutter. “Get off the counter.”

Stiles chuffed. ‘Rude.’ Pushing forward into the man’s hand Stiles grumbled a moment rubbing against the man's palm before jumping down. He rubbed against Derek’s legs before doing the same to Scott on his way out of the kitchen. Isaac was snickering as the cat came around to brush up against him.

“Sorry dude, you can have some when you’re back to normal.”

Stiles huffed. ‘Yeah, whenever that’ll be.’ Morose about the coffee betrayal and his inability to turn back, Stiles flopped down on the floor next to Isaac. The blonde looked down only to roll his eyes.

“Stop being dramatic.”

Stiles made a small grumbling noise as he replied. ‘You stop being dramatic.’ He shot back. ‘Coffee is nirvana...Well, Curly fries are better but you already knew that.’ 

Isaac gave a parting glance to the sprawled out cat, looking back at Scott who had gotten a fresh mug of coffee. “So...Coffee is not Bastilli approved.”

The teen snickered right along with Isaac. “Apparently not.”

Derek smirked around a sip of his coffee, he wasn’t surprised by that. The boys taste buds had to be different as a Bastilli, not that Stiles was prepared to acknowledge that. Setting his mug down on the counter, the Alpha informed the others. “We should try and see if we can’t get Stiles back to normal.”

‘Agreed, Stiles would like that.’ Stiles muttered for none to understand.

The teens smirked at the cat’s reply to what Derek had said, the words being lost on them. 

“Yeah but how? None of us can like change like him...So how do we tell him how to change back?”

Derek shook his head at Scott, he wasn’t sure. “I only know what my sister and mom said about it, but Deaton might know something.” As sour as it was to admit to needing the man’s help again, getting Stiles back to normal was more important.

“So, we call him and see if he might know of a way?” Isaac dared to glance between the two Alphas.

Scott shrugged. “I don’t see why not.” He met Derek’s gaze. “Rock paper scissors?”

The Alpha gave him a dower look, walking away and calling out. “Just get him here. Stiles come on.”

The cat rose. ‘Are we going somewhere?’ The Bastili trailing after the Alpha as Derek headed towards the door.

“Where are you two going?” Isaac called.

“Out. We’ll be back.” Derek lead Stiles towards the front door, the Bastili trailing faithfully behind him.

“Oh well, that’s helpful!” Isaac cried out sarcastically. Scott snorted in agreement even as he snatched up his phone to call the vet. 

The front door shut, leaving Isaac to glare after the missing Alpha. Twisting about the teen let out an irritated huff. “Why’d he leave it up to us?”

Scott rolled his eyes. “So he wouldn’t have to deal with him.” It was pretty obvious, Derek didn’t get on with Deaton all that well.

“Just because we work with him doesn’t mean he likes us.”

Scott shrugged as he pressed send and put the phone to his ear. “To be fair, do you really want to listen to Derek growl at the phone?”

Isaac mulled that over a second before shaking his head, Scott nodded. “Me either.”

 

********

 

Stiles trotted after Derek, easily keeping pace with the Alpha as Derek lead him into the woods.

‘Oooh are we going on a picnic?’ He teased, Derek didn’t reply to his grumblings, just continued to walk. Stiles huffed. ‘Rude.’

Derek continued forward, a single-minded purpose as he took the teen deeper into the woods and far enough away from the pack house for them to talk or rather for him to talk. The last thing he wanted was the others intruding on anything that he and Stiles did. He didn’t think the pack would understand, they’d be to busy asking questions to let him try to get Stiles back to normal.  Assured that they had gone far enough, the Alpha found a nearby tree to lean against. Sitting down he pointed at the Bastilli.

“Sit.”

‘Bite me.” Stiles bared his teeth back as he remained standing to spite the wolf.

Derek growled. “Stiles.”

‘Derek.’

Shaking his head the wolf leaned back. “We won’t get anywhere if you mess around.”

Stiles stared back at the wolf blankly. ‘Do you know who you’re talking to?’ He challenged back.

Derek sighed as the teen continued to be obstinate. “Do you really want Deaton to be the one to figure this out?”

Stiles thought about that a moment, he wasn’t against the man as Derek was but then again it wasn’t as if they were buddies either. Stiles was sure the Druid would do what he could, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t involve some magic voodoo shit. Huffing, Stiles walked forward a few paces and flopped down onto the ground, not sitting but laying on his belly. Derek smirked, at least it was progress. He looked up at the sky through the treetops. “Mom always said it was fluid, like water running through a creek.”

‘How zen-like.’

Derek ignored the cat's noises, already well aware that he was most likely getting some kind of sarcastic retort. “Laura didn’t agree with her, said it was more about reigning in the wolf itself. Like pulling it back and forcing it to obey.” Derek let his gaze settle back onto Stiles. “I don’t know what it’s like for you.”

‘Strange...Foreign...Kinda cool, but also scary.’

“If you can sense a difference between yourself and the Bastilli, that’s what you need to focus on. Making that difference wider I suppose.”

Stiles tilted his head a bit, thinking on it. He knew, in the beginning, he could vividly sense the divide between them. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Stiles tried to find the cat itself as if it was a seperate entity from himself. There was nothing. Stiles blinked as his mind coalesced to that fact, grumbling Stiles shook his head to Derek.

The Alpha frowned. “You can’t sense anything?”

Stiles shook his head again.

Derek sighed. “Bastilli’s are different from a wolf-” The Alpha glowered when he got a dry snort from the cat that was followed by a series of noises. “I know.” Derek growled, already sensing the chewing out he was getting from the teen. “There has to be something that’ll trigger it for you.”

Stiles huffed as he laid his head down on his paws. ‘That’s great and all Derek, but what is that? It’s not as easy as going here kitty-kitty.’

“You sensed it before didn’t you? The Bastilli side?” Derek questioned, he was sure that Stiles had, after all, it was the cat's memories that had sent Stiles running from the loft.

‘Yeah...I mean mostly in the beginning I suppose.’ Stiles grumbled back at the Alpha. ‘Hard to relate, not that you can understand me cause you can’t and this is getting us nowhere.’ Stiles blew out a long stream of air, discouraged.

Derek could sense how frustrated Stiles was, he was too, the wolf had hoped that retreating into the woods might help facilitate the teen relaxing enough to change back. Not having the pack there looming overhead to watch, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Sitting up, folding his legs to sit cross-legged the Alpha leaned forward to stretch out a hand to pet Stiles’ head.

“We’ll figure it out.” He promised the teen.

Stiles sighed into the man’s gentle touch, rising as he pushed into the man’s palm as he stepped forward to crash their heads together. Giving off a small chitter to the clack their skulls made together all the while stating. ‘You better fix me Sourwolf or I’ll shed all over the place. I’m a bit bigger than a house-cat and I’m pretty sure my neighbors would notice which means I’m all yours.’

Derek rubbed at his brow just a moment as Stiles twisted about upon issuing the cat-like behavior, laying his hand down into his lap the wolf questioned. “Does that hurt?”

‘No. Why would it?’ Stiles replied with a tilt of his head.

Derek hummed when Stiles grumbled back at him, not about to question the cat's vocalizations or what they might possibly mean, Derek, waved at the teen to come closer. Surprisingly Stiles didn’t fight him on the request, coming forward once more to sit beside him. Derek reached out and scratched the cat's neck, leaning back as he mused aloud. “That was a pretty mean way to wake up Isaac.”

Stiles chittered not only from the prank he’d done but also because he could see Derek’s smile. ‘You loved it.’ He threw out.

Derek shook his head. “Guess I shouldn’t complain then...At least you didn’t jump on me.”

Stiles snorted. ‘I didn’t even wake you up you big baby.’ Stiles leaned into the pleasant sensation of the Alpha’s fingers sorting through his fur. ‘You are seriously good at that, I will never forgive you for this.’

“You don’t remember do you?” Derek all but whispered, curious but also hesitant to bring it up.

Stiles grumbled. ‘Remember what?’ He tilted his head into the man’s hand as it shifted upwards to stroke an ear.

“Guess you were still asleep.” Derek replied to himself when the cat didn’t show any comprehension of what he’d asked. 

Stiles hummed as he slid slowly down to lay on his belly beside the older man, his head finding its way to lay on the man’s thigh. Derek smiled down at the teen, his hand combing through the dense fur of the beast. His fingers caught on something, looking through the fur as his fingers pulled on the object he found the cord to the charm which was still wrapped around the Bastilli’s neck. The charm had sunken into the fur and disappearing from sight.

“Sit up.” Derek instructed the teen.

‘Why? I’m comfy.’ Stiles moaned as he shifted his head on the man’s leg.

Derek rolled his eyes as the cat refused to move, letting a claw come out, he sliced the cord and pulled the necklace away. Stiles felt something sliding from around his neck and bolted upright, he glared for all of a minute at Derek before seeing what the man had done. The charm, oh, he’d forgotten about that. Leaning forward as it sat in Derek’s palm, Stiles sniffed it. It smelled funny, wrinkling his nose Stiles made a face at Derek. The Alpha smirked. “You didn’t even know it was there.” He chastised the teen.

Huffing Stiles muttered. ‘Lies, I knew...I just forgot for a minute.’ Stiles leaned forward again to give a tentative sniff at the metal, it really smelled...Off. The teens shook his head, letting his head come under Derek’s hand to nudge it up and away. Derek clenched the charm in his palm so as not to drop it as Stiles tried to make him discard it. Stiles grumbled as he nudged Derek’s hand, the wolf not getting the hint. Huffing, Stiles lifted his head to glare at the wolf.

Derek raised a brow at the put-out expression on the Bastilli’s face. “You’ve been wearing it for a while now, it shouldn’t bother you.”

‘Well it does.’ Stiles retorted with a bit of teeth. ‘Get rid of it.’

Derek ignored the cat’s grumbling, shoving the charm into his pocket even as Stiles glared at him for ignoring him. Charm safely stored, Derek held out his palm with a smirk. “There, all gone.”

Stiles snorted. ‘jackass.’ He bared his teeth.

Derek chuckled at the threat, shaking his head before shifting himself to bare his own fangs. Stiles grumbled as he lowered himself in submission, looking away from the man’s red gaze. Derek shifted back fluidly, tilting his head, he hadn’t even had to say anything before the Bastilli submitted. Interesting. Ruffling the cat's fur, the Alpha pondered aloud. “Do you feel it? The...Buzz to submit or are you just reacting because you don’t want to fight me?”

Stiles huffed as he turned back to glare. ‘I don’t know what buzz you’re talking about but if you’re meaning the horrible wrongness that goes up my spine than yeah...I don’t like it. Makes me...Feel off, and for your information, I have no problem fighting you.’ The cat rose, shook itself out and then roared in the Alpha’s face just for the hell of it. Stiles was still getting used to all the changes his Bastilli shape allotted him, but by far he found this little experiment the best yet. Closing his maw a tad, panting in joy, Stiles smiled.

Derek grimaced at the loud noise that was thrown in his face, the cat's hot breath ghosting him before it cut off. Opening his eyes to glare at the panting feline, Derek muttered. “Don’t do that again.”

Stiles snorted back at him, shaking his head before trotting away from the wolf. Derek could see the cockiness in the cat's actions, he glared harder. Stiles twisted about to chitter at the wolf, stalking this way and that as he contemplated what to do now that he had Derek on the ropes.

Derek raised a brow to the boy’s sudden change in behavior, he knew Stiles was posturing or at least that’s what it appeared to be to him. 

This was the first real time that the teen had gotten free reign to do as he pleased...Other than when he had been on the run but Derek didn’t believe that the teen had made use of that time. Shifting, Derek rolled to his knees prepared to climb to his feet and escort the teen back to the loft. If he couldn’t help Stiles shift back then it was best to see what Deaton might know. Derek had managed to get to his knees and then he was on his back. Derek growled up at the cat who had bowled him over and was chittering as it stared down at him.

‘HA! Take that Sourwolf.’ Stiles chittered in amusement.

“Stiles.” Derek growled.

Stiles chittered, leaning down to rub his head on the irritated wolf before lopping off of him and circling the area. Derek sat up on his elbows glaring at the cat who had just scent marked him as some sort of apology. Sighing, the man sat up fully and watched in a guarded fashion as Stiles turned to stare back at him. He waited, Stiles, did too.

“Are you going to do that again?” Derek questioned in a bored tone.

‘Maybe.’ Stiles retorted with a grin, his teeth on show.

Shaking his head Derek couldn’t help but retort. “You can torture Isaac when we get back.”

As tempting as that was, and it was really tempting, the teen snorted. ‘Why do that? I can still torture him later, I don’t need your permission Sourwolf.’

Derek scowled, he was sure that Stiles had just made some kind of snappy comeback, but it was lost in translation. Attempting once more to rise to his feet, Derek rolled to the side when he sensed and heard Stiles moving, he wasn’t wrong. The cat went stumbling past him, the wolf chuckled as he got to his feet, the Bastilli having twisted to glower back at him.

‘Jerk.’

Shaking his head, Derek dusted himself off and prepared to turn and head back to the loft. No sooner than had he taken his eyes off of Stiles than did he grunt at the cat jumping onto his back, he stumbled and then ultimately fell under the beasts immense weight as it overbalanced him. Derek crashed to his knees before catching himself on an arm, he twisted to throw Stiles off of his back only for the cat's paws to wrap around his shoulders as its hind legs dug in, thankfully Stiles wasn’t using his claws.

“Stiles!” Derek barked sharply as the cat settled on his back as if he was prepared to stay there.

Stiles was pleased with himself, immensely pleased. Not only had he managed to catch Derek off guard after the jerk had dodged him, but he was now in control of everything. Derek couldn’t throw him off or at the very least hadn’t managed to thus far as he’d wrapped his paws around the man’s shoulders. It was surprisingly easy to hold onto the man, probably more of the innate cat abilities he was still adjusting to. 

Hearing the wolf bark out his name, Stiles leaned forward to sniff at the back of the man’s neck. Derek froze beneath him, Stiles huffed he knew dominance and all that jazz and he wasn’t about to try and do that to Derek. No, instead he licked the back of the man’s neck. Derek still tensed at the sudden action but he relaxed soon after. Stiles found that although he’d done it in jest, the action was soothing. And thus, he did it again.

Derek had tensed, unable to stop himself when he felt the Bastilli’s breath against the back of his neck. His shift had fallen over him on instinct alone, he was prepared to throw the teen off of him by force in an instant only to freeze before he could do so. Stiles licked the back of his neck, not bit, not nipped and not grappled with it, just licked. Derek frowned then grimaced when the cat did it again, sighing when it appeared that Stiles was once more back into his grooming phase the man forced his shift back and muttered. “Get off.”

Stiles grumbled as he rubbed his face against the back of the man’s neck, nuzzling for a moment before giving another lick. He felt Derek shifting beneath him, either to get comfortable or to try and remove him Stiles wasn’t sure all he knew was that he wanted to remain as he was. His paws flexed on the man’s shoulder a bit, content. Leaning down Stiles scented Derek again, breathing in the man's natural scent and ignoring the traces of his own that he’d left behind. Rumbling at it all, Stiles finally caved to the man’s next request but only because he was lax enough from being allowed to do as he pleased just before.

“Get down.” Derek tempered his voice, despite wanting to order the teen to remove himself from Derek’s back, the man knew that he would most likely be ignored if he approached things that way. He sighed when the cat shifted on his back, Stiles hopping off of him to come around and head butt him. Derek glared even as Stiles purred as he brushed against him, Sitting back on his heels, Derek watched the teen. Stiles purred as he rubbed against him, the wolf allowed his hand to come out and pet the felines sleek form. 

“Are you done?” 

Stiles tilted his head up and chirped, a sound that had Derek raising his brow. Shaking his head, Derek pushed the beast back a bit and rose to his feet. He gave Stiles a questioning look, but Stiles did nothing but sit at in front of him. Derek had thought, initially that it was all in play, that Stiles had just been doing things because he found them amusing but now he wasn’t so sure. Stiles had been scent marking him more than the others and with what he just did...Derek rebuked himself for not having listened to his own instincts the day prior.

“Stiles...Do you know what you were doing?” It bothered him to be the one to educate the teen on it, it was embarrassing since Stiles wasn’t a born creature. It was like educating Scott all over again, something he hadn’t wanted to endure once more. Still, it was his responsibility as Stiles seemed adamant to continue the behaviors.

Stiles tilted his head. ‘What? I showed you who’s boss and I scented you, not like you haven’t done that to me a thousand times.’

Derek frowned. “You know you were scenting me?” Stiles gave a snort and nodded. Well, that was a small relief. “And do you...My neck, do you get that?”

Stiles was prepared to give another wry snort only for him to frown. ‘Isn’t it the same thing?’ Stiles grumbled as he was forced to shake his head.

Derek sighed, right...Embarrassing. Looking away, Derek found his tongue-tied as he tried to explain everything to Stiles. This would have been so much easier if he was a wolf, awkward as hell, but still easier. Derek didn’t know if there were conflicting instincts due to him being a Bastilli, so all he could do was act as if there weren’t. 

“You know Alpha’s won’t submit willingly...Part of the reason me and Scott had issues, to begin with. We’re on even footing now, if one of the Beta’s was to challenge us we’d put them in their place. You know about dominance, how the pack dynamics work.”

‘Well duh, I’ve been a part of the pack for a while now Derek.’ Stiles gave a dull snort.

Derek didn’t bother looking back, he knew that Stiles understood. “There’s really only a few reasons an Alpha will allow another near their neck, mostly to console a Beta or in another case...Bond with a mate. Scenting is a lot like that, Alpha’s and Beta’s scent mark each other to lay claim to each other, we do it to you all the time and now...You can do it too.”

‘Yep.’ Stiles chirped. ‘Already did that, what’s the point, Derek?’

Taking a breath as he stared out into the woods, the Alpha informed the teen. “You were scent marking me.”

Stiles snorted. ‘No...How’d you figure that out?’

Closing his eyes a moment to get over the fact that he knew, instinctively knew that Stiles had just berated him for stating the obvious. Derek opened them again to snipe out. “You weren’t scent marking me like a Beta would Stiles.”

Huh. Weird, Stiles twisted his head and let out a small questioning noise. ‘What do you mean? What other way is there to scent someone?’

Derek couldn’t look at the Bastilli, at Stiles, not when he was bringing this up. “Stiles...Boyd and Erica, they smell like each other...Differently, than the rest of us, you’ll pick it up eventually if you haven’t already.”

‘Is this your way of saying they smell?’ Stiles chittered.

Derek frowned, turning to stare at the amused cat. “Have you?”

Stiles shook his head, he hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Then again other than scenting Erica when his sense first came in he hadn’t taken the time to investigate the other Beta’s smells. 

Nodding, Derek replied. “They smell like themselves, a single person, but also like each other, their scents are...Attached.” He muttered as if it strained himself to do so.

‘Attached?’ Stiles chuffed. ‘What does that mean?’

As if knowing that Stiles had just asked that particular question Derek replied. “They’re mates, they didn’t know it at first and I didn’t tell them...They figured it out or at least partially before they came to ask me about it.”

‘Huh...So they’re like boyfriend and girlfriend 2.0 or something?’ The cat tilted his head to the side, curious now.

Steadying himself, Derek looked away. “Mates have a way...They have certain behaviors towards one another, anyone who’s looking or...Has found someone they think is their mate will act differently. Scent marking...Normally it’s done with our wrists, so as not to overstep boundaries.” Derek coughed a bit as he rubbed at his own as if to demonstrate.

Stiles hummed, as he watched the nervous Alpha because that was what Derek was at the moment, nervous. ‘What’s the deal Sourwolf?’

“You’re acting...I don’t know if this is you...Or some other instincts maybe from the Bastilli, but you’re scent marking me in your own way...On my head and neck.” Derek cleared his throat as it was even harder to say. “Like you’re claiming me.”

Stiles blinked. Blinked again. And finally, replied. ‘What?’

Derek frowned when he got no real reaction, looking down at the cat, the Alpha asked. “Do you understand?” He didn’t know how Stiles wouldn’t, the boy was smart but that didn’t mean that Stiles might have discarded something that Derek was saying.

Stiles blinked up at Derek, his mind caught up in the fact that all the things he’d been doing lately had a reason. He was floored of course, but there was something niggling at the back of his mind. The smell when he scented Derek, the one that just told him that Derek was his, the Alpha having no real scent to him other than that. It made sense in some distorted way. Stiles flattened his ears against his head. ‘So...What I’m doing is all a lie? Like is this just the cat or something? Or...Is it because I like you in general? Cause like having a crush is not the means of which to have some life long soul bond thingy. I swear to god if this is another aspect of this cat bullshit screwing with things I will-’

Derek frowned as the cat began to growl and chuff, a series of noises sparced in between as Stiles spoke. Derek wanted to understand, but he couldn’t. Kneeling down, Derek held up a hand. “Stiles, I can’t understand you.” It pained him to say it, but it was the truth.

Stiles looked away sharply, right, for all the good it did him he was mute. ‘T-This is stupid...I’m sorry alright?’

Derek stared back at the cat, Stiles refused to look back at him and had fallen silent. Sighing, the wolf muttered sourly. “It’s-It’s not a big deal Stiles...I just wasn’t sure if you knew or not.”

Stiles huffed. ‘Pretty damn obvious I didn’t huh Derek?’ He twisted his head around to glower back at the wolf. ‘And what do you mean it’s not a big deal?! I’ve been making a jackass out of myself and freaking you the hell out!’ Stiles bared his teeth, a glutaral growl leaving him.

Derek reached out to touch only to frown when Stiles ducked back, low to the ground as he yowled. 

Sighing, the man let his hand fall back to his side. It shouldn’t have been all that surprising to see Stiles react that way after he’d just informed the teen of what he’d been doing, but it still hurt on some level. “Alright...Let’s just, head back, see if Deaton doesn’t have some idea on how to fix this. I-I obviously don’t know of a way to get you to change back on your own, it was a long shot anyway...We can talk...About all of this later.”

‘Yeah...Cause that’s going to happen...Like never.’ Stiles retorted with a hiss, Stiles took another wary step back as Derek got back to his feet. The Alpha kept his gaze only a moment longer before turning to head back to the loft.

Stiles hesitated at first, but rose solidly to his feet and with a small distance between them followed Derek back to the loft. 

 

******

 

As soon as he had the door open Stiles went darting past him, startling the rest of the pack when he dashing up the stairs to Derek’s bedroom. Despite the horrible conversation they just had it was really the only place that he could have some sort of reprieve, the rest of the pack were unlikely to head up there and Stiles knew...Derek was going to give him space. 

Stiles didn’t hop up onto the bed, he didn’t climb onto the window ledge, no he went and secluded himself into the safe darkness of the man’s closet. Closing his eyes as he buried his face with his tail.

‘What an idiot.’

 

*******

 

Derek sighed as he watched Stiles dart up the staircase to his bedroom, he looked back to the pack and shook his head. He wasn’t keen on answering any questions so instead, he asked one of his own. “Deaton?”

Scott frowned as he stared up at Derek’s bedroom and where his best friend had just fled to. He nodded, answering his fellow Alpha. “He said he’ll come by on his lunch hour.” Looking back at Derek, he asked. “What happened?”

Derek shook his head, glaring straight at Erica when the girl opened to retort. She clicked her jaw shut upon seeing the threatening gaze, something was definitely wrong.

“Is he okay?” Scott demanded to know.

Derek sighed, running a hand through his hair. “We didn’t have any luck...He’s frustrated alright?”

Scott huffed, that looked like more than just frustrated. “Derek.”

The older Alpha glared, flashing his own eyes in warning. “Leave it.”

Scott growled back, he wasn’t about to just let it go, something was wrong with Stiles. Isaac stepped in, standing between the pair, giving Derek an imploring look all while ignoring the death glare being leveraged at the back of his head. “Is he okay?”

Derek shook his head. “He’s upset.”

Isaac bit his lip. “Why’s he hiding?”

Derek opened his mouth to give a vague answer, more deflection, but he found that it was far harder to lie about this. His pack was curious, afraid that something was wrong and he knew otherwise. He knew what was wrong, just not how to fix it. Swallowing, Derek looked away and in a cold tone replied. “Not a word.” Ordinarily, he might have enforced that while glaring at them, but he found that he couldn’t meet their gaze.

“Derek?” Scott pushed passed Isaac, pulling the Beta behind him when he sensed the change in the older Alpha.

“Stiles scented me.”

The pack frowned, that wasn’t anything bad, he’d been doing that to all of them bit by bit. Derek took a breath, his voice firm even as fought to say the words. “He-He was claiming me, I-Told him what it meant.”

Scott looked from Derek towards the man’s bedroom, so Stiles knew. And based on his reaction, he hadn’t taken it well. “Derek...”

Derek shook his head. “Give him his space, we need to figure out how to change him back.” Derek’s command was finite, not that anyone wanted to argue. Not even Scott, the younger Alpha well aware of what all of this meant.

“Sure.” Scott agreed. “He can chill out until Deaton gets here.”

Derek gave a small nod, walking past the pack to sit in his chair. He didn’t take up his book, he just glared out the window and fought against the urge to go and talk with Stiles about it. The teen was aware of his own actions, knew about scenting and how dominance worked, understood on some level that he thought of Derek as a prospective mate. 

Derek just wasn’t sure if he was capable of bringing up the fact that he’d known the same thing for years now, the secret that even the pack had known about. Sighing, Derek carded a hand through his hair as he slouched back into his chair. How was he supposed to go on acting like everything was fine when Stiles was right there? Derek wasn’t sure he was strong enough to be beside the boy all the while knowing that Stiles didn’t wish to be his mate.

  
  



	28. Deaton has a theory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deaton's arrival sparks a series of conversations that no one had anticipated. The pack tries to help Stiles figure out how to change back.

Deaton’s lunch hour couldn’t come soon enough, the whole pack was on edge. Derek wasn’t speaking, wasn’t moving from his place in his chair and Stiles hadn’t made an appearance since the pair of them got back. None of them had even attempted to go upstairs and talk to the teen, somehow instinctively knowing that it wouldn’t have worked to draw him out. 

Therefore the sound of a car coming up the drive at 11:30 had all of them sighing in relief, at long last they might have some clue as to what to do. Scott got up and answered the door long before Deaton was actually there, the man nodded as he entered. 

Looking about the loft curiously, he’d only been out to the place twice before and each time he’d left because of Derek’s anger. He wasn’t invited often, to say the least, the druid caught sight of the rest of the pack. He nodded politely to them before his gaze went farther back to Derek, the older Alpha sent a passing glance towards him but easily wrote him off. Raising a brow, Deaton twisted to address Scott.

“Where is Stiles?”

“Upstairs...He’s hiding.”

The druid lifted his head a bit, a clear indication that he should continue talking. Rubbing the back of his neck, Scott muttered. “Derek tried to help Stiles change back cause of what his mom and sister knew...It didn’t work. Stiles’ is frustrated and...” A growl had the other Alpha silencing himself.

Deaton looked back towards Derek, finding the man’s glower on par for when he was at his limit of tolerating others. Nodding, the druid asked. “Has he been hurt in any way?”

“No. Why would he?” Erica questioned.

The druid shrugged. “Stress can be a key component.”

Isaac huffed, throwing an arm up. “So him being stressed about not being able to change back could be preventing him from changing back?”

The pack tensed at that outcome, Deaton chuckled. “I’m sure his reservations about being trapped may not help but no, they shouldn’t keep him bound to his Bastilli form altogether. I simply wished to be prepared for speaking with him.” Looking to Scott in particular, the druid stated. “I’d like to see him.”

Scott nodded, heading for the stairs as if to go and collect his best friend only to come up short at the bottom. Stiles was standing at the top, glaring down at him. “Hey, buddy...Deaton’s here an-”

Stiles growled as he prowled down the stairs, brushing against Scott as he went. It wasn’t a warm greeting but it also wasn’t a dismissal, Scott took it for what it was. A clear indication of how stressed out Stiles was. He followed behind his friend, watching as Stiles hopped up onto the couch beside Erica and flopped down. She smiled at her friend's dramatics but didn’t call him on it. It didn’t seem the time for such things, when he shifted his head to look up at her she raised a brow. “What?”

Stiles blew out a breath. ‘Right, you haven’t gotten the chance to pet the kitty...Scott’s pretty good at it, he should teach you.’

Erica frowned at the rumbles the cat was issuing directly towards her, she smiled wanly. “Stiles...I can’t understand you.”

The cat huffed, shifting his head away. ‘Yeah, I know.’ He stared out across the floor to Deaton who had been watching him.

“Hello, Stiles.”

‘Deaton.’ The cat rumbled.

The druid smiled. “If I may, could you come here.” He pointed to the ground. “I’d like to get a good look at you.”

‘That doesn’t sound creepy at all.’ Stiles muttered even as he slinked off of the couch in a huff and slowly maneuvered his way around, rubbing against Isaac’s leg on the way there. The blonde smiled at the simple gesture, watching on as Stiles came to sit before Deaton.

The druid smiled, kneeling down to address the teen. “You’re quite the sight.”

‘Thanks.’

“I have to admit I’ve never seen a Bastilli before and I am curious.”

Stiles snorted. ‘Good for you, I’m bored and would like to have apposable thumbs now.’ The grumblings and growls the cat made were ignored by the druid. Deaton reached out only to pause when Stiles took a step back, his brow crinkling as his lip raised.

“Hey hey, chill man.” Scott came forward, crouching down beside Stiles. “It’s just Deaton, he’s going to help you change back.”

‘Not likely.’ Stiles muttered even as he grumbled and rubbed against Scott, walking around the wolf to hiss at Deaton. Stiles knew Deaton, never had quite trusted the man, but knew him, however, with his new senses Stiles knew something else. He really didn’t like Deaton anymore. Scott sighed, wrapping an arm around Stiles and riskily pulling him back. Stiles went easily enough, all it cost him was a mean headbutt. Scott chuckled at the affection, trying to reason with his friend. “He’s an expert dude, let him look.”

‘Expert my ass, he just said he’s never dealt with one before.’ The teen growled as he came to stand before Deaton once more with his ears plastered to his head and the quills along his body quivering, not erect, but threatening to be.

Scott frowned at the hostility Stiles was showing the man, it wasn’t like Stiles but maybe it was just stress? It had to be hard to be trapped in his Bastilli form for so long, unable to really talk. “Stiles, come on man, let him try and help.”

Stiles huffed, sitting on his rump and glaring back at the man. ‘You smell wrong and I don’t know what that means, but I don’t like it.’

Deaton smiled as if he was aware of something, holding out his hand palm up he nodded. “Come here Stiles.”

‘You come to me.’ Stiles countered.

Nothing happened.

Scott looked back and forth waiting, the rest of the pack looking on in confusion as the druid and the Bastilli had some kind of staring contest.

Deaton smirked. “You’re very opinionated, always have been.” The druid stated in a sincere if not resigned voice. “That’s not doing you any favors right now, you’re holding too tightly to things. Trying to conform to things that no longer apply.”

‘Wow, that’s such great advice.’ Stiles growled. ‘Tell me more.’

Deaton didn’t take the growls and grumbles that were issued back at him as anything more than a conversation that couldn’t be heard. Pushing forward, the druid asked. “Have you reconciled with the beast?”

‘Um...Say what now?’ Stiles tilted his head.

Deaton hummed. “You have bonded with the pack haven’t you?”

Stiles glanced to the pack, before settling his gaze on Deaton, he nodded. “Good.” The druid smiled. “And all of you accepts them?”

Stiles wasn’t sure what he meant by that, he looked to Scott as if asking for help. Luckily Scott had his back. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, has his Bastilli side figured out its place in this pack? Has it truly accepted you all.”

“How could we tell one way or the other?” Erica asked curiously.

“Has he attacked anyone?”

Stiles hissed. ‘Asshole I wouldn’t attack them! I’d never hurt them!’

Deaton had a self-satisfied look on his face. “And there’s our answer.”

Scott was frowning just as the rest of the pack were. “Of course he wouldn’t hurt us.”

“The fact that he ran in the first place made him suspect to such things, it's obviously resolved itself and we can move on.” Deaton pushed it all aside as he turned his attention once more back to Stiles. “So, Stiles...Have you tried clearing your mind? Thinking of nothing but being human?”

Stiles chuffed. ‘Dude, you can take your mystical ways bullshit and go, I just want to turn back and meditating about being human isn’t going to do the trick. Know how I know? I’VE TRIED IT!’ Stiles bared his teeth startling Scott and the others.

“Dude, hey, ease up.” Scott reached out only to pull his hand back when Stiles turned a withering look onto him.

‘He’s treating me like a two-year-old.’

Scott sat back on his heels, lost as to what he should do to help.

“Stiles.” Deaton called civilly, drawing the cats attention. “Close your eyes for me, lay down.” He patted the ground.

Stiles growled, but slowly folded himself down onto his belly, the druid nodded. “Good. Now I’m going to do a simple exercise alright? Just to see how stable you are...Simple really.”

‘Uh huh and you’re being helpful all of the sudden because?’

“Close your eyes and focus on what you’re smelling. Just that, ignore what you hear, what you taste, what you feel. Nothing else matters, just your sense of smell.” Deaton nodded as the boy closed his eyes, the Bastilli grumbled a bit before settling. It’s tail leisurely swayed a moment before falling still. Deaton nodded at the reaction. “Alright Stiles, I want you to focus on something else. I want you to pick someone, anyone and listen only to their heartbeat. Just theirs, tune out everything else.”

Stiles huffed. ‘This is stupid.’ Still, he listened. Searching the room for a heartbeat that seemed better than the rest, in all honesty, Stiles was choosing at random or at least it felt that way. The heartbeat he chose was strong, steady, its beats were soothing. Stiles adjusted his head on his paws, giving a small grumble as he listened to the heartbeat and how its rhythm changed periodically. He wanted to know what was going on, if it was just nerves that had the person's heartbeat changing or if it was some pattern that Stiles wasn’t aware of. 

“You’re doing good Stiles, just keep focusing on that.” Deaton held out his hand to the pack, telling them to be still, be silent. They were watching him critically, waiting for something, anything to happen. Stiles stayed the same though, the Bastilli laid there, breathing evenly only its ears and tail moving occasionally. Then Deaton moved. The pack gasped when the druid reached out and with a single-minded task plucked a quill from the cat's neck behind its ear. Stiles jolted out of his trance yowling and shaking his head.

“Deaton!” Derek was on his feet in an instant as Stiles backed up into the coffee table pushing it back against the couch as his paw came up to scratch at his neck where the quill had been taken. The Druid stood at once, holding his hands in the air, the quill safely tucked between two fingers.

“All a test Derek, he’s fine.”

Derek growled, his eyes on show. “Don’t touch him again.”

Deaton smiled back at the wolf, reassuring the angry Alpha. “I don’t need to, I have all I need.”

“You could have just asked.” Isaac bit out. The other nodded.

Scott was trying to get Stiles to sit still so he could take a look but the teen wouldn’t yield. Stiles was pacing like a caged animal, little noises spilling forth from his throat as he anxiously paced. Derek glared at Deaton all the more for what he heard, he didn’t want to take his eyes off of the man even though he sensed the boy's distress.

“What now?” He growled.

The druid shrugged. “Now, we wait.”

Derek frowned. “For what?”

Deaton gestured towards Stiles who was behind Derek, pacing in front of the rest of the pack. The Alpha twisted to stare at Stiles, half expecting him to miraculously change back into his human persona. He didn’t, but Derek did jerk back at the same time the pack shouted. Derek stumbled, his head going down to where the quill was sticking out of his collar bone.

“Deaton!” Scott growled on his feet, getting between him and Derek now that Derek had been hurt by the druid. Derek stumbled backward losing his footing in shock then back onto his ass, his eyes on the quill. His heart was beating fast, he could hear his blood rushing in his ears. Swallowing Derek eyes fell to those of the green ones that came to peer up at him, Stiles having situated himself in front of the wolf a small yowl leaving its throat. Derek gave a small smirk, he knew Stiles was apologizing for something that wasn’t even his fault.

“I’m okay.” He replied.

Stiles grumbled back. ‘I’ll eat him if you want...Asshole has it coming.’ Stiles rubbed against Derek, more grumbles leaving the discontent feline. Derek’s hand bunched into the cat's fur, as he breathed steadily. His brows furrowing a moment later, looking up he glared. Deaton was smirking. Derek patted Stiles’ side, glaring hotly at Deaton. “Stiles...Go outside with Isaac.”

The cat twisted around to stare at him. ‘What? Why?  You’re hurt, I should-’

“Isaac, take him outside.”

“Umm...Okay.” The blonde came forward as if he had a chance of corralling Stiles on his own, the cat sat down and glared, puffing up his quills. Isaac groaned. “Come on man, do what Derek wants...This could get messy.”

‘I’m okay with that.’ He twisted to bare his teeth at Deaton. Stiles deep rumbling growl tapered when a firm hand grasped the back of his neck and stroked it. 

“Go outside, I’m fine.”

Stiles chuffed, ignoring the wolf.

“I’m sure that Scott will protect Derek from me” Deaton stated with a wry smile.

Stiles lunged forward to slash at the druid with his claws only to be held back by Derek’s hand tightening in his scruff.

“It’s okay.” Derek calmly stated in a gruff voice, all the while glaring at Deaton. “Scott, get everyone outside.”

Scott looked torn about that, but shook his head, using his Alpha voice. “Outside now!” The Beta’s had no choice but to follow, sending worried glances back to their Alphas. Scott nodded. “We’ll be fine, stay outside, stay by the woods.” When they were gone, the door left open behind them, all that was left was Deaton, Scott, Derek, and Stiles did the druid wonder aloud.

“Figure it out yet Derek?”

Stiles growled, his quills standing on end at the man’s taunting.

“Stiles. Go outside.”

‘Hell no.’ Stiles growled, backing up into Derek as he hissed Deaton.

“What’s going on?” Scott growled at Deaton, waving a hand at Derek. “Why would you do that?!”

“To test a theory.” Deaton replied. “A very solid one and not surprisingly I was correct, are you going to stand up Derek?”

Stiles hissed, taking another swipe even as Derek’s hand kept him in place. ‘Fuck you man, I’m going to use you as a scratching post.’

The angry yowls that were intermittently displayed by Stiles, were ignored as Derek called back to the druid. “Touch him again and I’ll be looking for a new druid for Hale land.”

Deaton gave a nod, an acquiesce to the Alpha’s demand. “Of course, I simply wished to help and I do believe this might be the crux of the issue seeing as he’s accepted everyone else.” The smirk on the man's words rankled Derek.

“What are you talking about?” Scott glared back at the man, shooting a confused look to Derek. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Yeah.” Derek bit out. “I know.” Trailing his hand down Stiles’ back, the Alpha replied. “Stay here, with me.” The Alpha implored the cat as he stumbled back to his feet.

Stiles twisted sharply. ‘What? You-You’re okay?’

Derek glared at Deaton even as he ripped the quill out and tossed it aside. The druid tilted his head back in amusement. “I see we still have things to address, he won’t change back, his other half is far too confused for that I’d wager.”

“Confused by what?” Scott growled. “You’re not making any sense, you ripped a goddamn quill out of Stiles and stabbed Derek with it.”

Derek glared all the harder when Scott repeated what had just taken place. “I’m immune.”

Scott blinked, turned and sputtered. “W-What? Immune? Immune to what?”

“Stiles.” Deaton supplied. “He’s immune to Stiles.”

The Bastili grumbled. ‘Seriously? What the hell does that even mean?’ 

Derek glanced down at the irritated cat, biting his tongue when he looked back up toward Deaton. “Why is that holding him back?”

“Bastilli’s are prideful creatures, and I don’t just mean because they reside in a pride.” The man joked. “I’m sure he’s been displaying...Certain behaviors that you’re used to, well at least have heard of.”

Derek growled and that sent Stiles off into baring his teeth again. Derek grit his teeth, silencing himself before muttering. “It’s fine Stiles.”

‘Hell it is!’ The Bastilli snarled.

Deaton looked ill impressed with the display, sighing. “You’ve been beating around the bush for so long and now it has come full circle, you cannot avoid this any longer. He cannot afford that.” The druid gestured towards the Bastilli.

“We talked...About some of it.”

“Some, but not all.” Deaton caught on.

Derek looked away. “It’s not that simple, he’s not a wolf and-”

“Nothing is simple, let alone easy.” Deaton counseled. “However, if you wish to see Stiles as a human again, I would suggest that you face whatever fear you may have for this and bare with it so he might return to normal.”

Derek sent a loathsome look towards the druid, but Deaton held his gaze without remorse. “There is nothing I can do for him, he is not broken.”

‘Gee thanks that’s really reassuring.’ Stiles hissed as he walked behind Derek, rubbing on the Alpha and hissing at Deaton as he came back around. The man looked amused and that rankled him, his quills were upright as he stalked forward.

“No.”

Stiles stopped, some part of him already knew that was directed at himself even though Derek hadn’t said his name. Hissing at Deaton, he turned back and grumbled at Derek. ‘He deserves it.’

Derek didn’t comment on whatever Stiles was grumbling about, though he had a good idea what it was.

“Someone needs to explain what is going on to me because this is confusing.”

Derek sent a mild glare at Scott, wishing silently that the younger Alpha would catch a clue. Scott glared back at him and those weak little hopes were killed. Deaton chuckled, drawing everyone's attention. “I’ll leave you all to it then.” Deaton nodded, giving Stiles an appraising look. “Your form is really quite beautiful.”

Stiles bared his teeth, lashing his tail as all his quills stood on end. ‘Yeah? Wanna pet me?!’

Shaking his head, the druid smiled to Scott and then headed for the door. Scott watched him trail off and groaned, muttering a hasty ‘damn it.’ before following after the man. Stiles hissed, watching as Deaton fled, his best friend trailing off behind him. Huffing, the teen twisted about and stared at Derek. ‘What gives?’ He questioned petulantly.

Derek’s hard gaze went from Deaton's back to Stiles, softening. Sighing, Derek muttered. “This would be so much easier if you were a wolf.”

Stile snorted back at him, smirking Derek knelt down and touched the wound or rather where the wound might have been from where he’d been stabbed. Stiles leaned forward sniffing at it only to have his maw shoved away by Derek. 

“I’m fine. Look.” He tapped the area. “This...This is what I’m immune to, your quills.”

Stiles jerked his head back, twisting to the side. ‘What? How is that even possible?’ Stiles leaned forward as if to sniff at Derek’s collar bone again. Derek sighed and let the teen do as he pleased at least for a moment, he shoved him back gently a while later. Staring solidly into the green eyes. “I’m immune to you Stiles.”

‘Bullshit.’ The cat chuffed, Stiles flexed his quills which had gone down. 

Derek raised a brow at the action. “What? Do you want me to prove it?” He asked in an annoyed and weary voice.

Stiles shook his head, he didn’t want to paralyze Derek. The wolf smiled, reaching out to rub the cats head. “You can’t hurt me...Well, not with your quills anyway.” Derek amended.

Stiles grumbled. ‘I think Deaton’s screwing with you dude, had to be a fluke or...Oh, maybe it was empty because I was all jello-like from his zen bullshit.’ That had to be what had happened and Deaton was making Derek think otherwise. He twisted his head to hiss at the doorway as if the noise could travel to the druid. 

Derek frowned at Stiles’ action but gave a shake of his head there was no point in asking what was wrong. He couldn’t understand him. Scratching the fur between the teens two ears, Derek stated in an annoyed tone. “I really don’t like that man.”

Stiles chuffed, leaning into the wolf. Derek smirked as he stroked Stiles’ spine the quills all laying flat. “Deaton...As messed up as it is, might not be wrong.”

Stiles snorted, giving him the stink eye. Derek glared back. “His theory...Or whatever you want to call it, it might be right. I’m immune to you and the same reason for that might be the reason you can’t change back.”

Stiles huffed as he righted himself to sit directly in front of the Alpha. ‘Alright I’ll play ball, explain.’

Sensing that Stiles was just humoring, but listening all the same Derek stated. “What we talked about in the woods before.” Stiles’ face scrunched up into a scowl, Derek glared. “Let me finish.” He bit out. “It goes both ways Stiles.”

That had the cat ceasing his grumbling, his head canted to the side. ‘Say what now?’

Derek shook his head. “You’re...You scent marked me because you sensed something it might have been just your Bastilli half that recognized it, but you did on some level. That’s why you were claiming me.”

“Um...No, it’s called I have a massive crush and no life to speak of.’ Stiles retorted in a series of noises.

Derek shook his head. “Listen. You scent marked me because you know that I’m your mate.” God was it hard to admit that, he would have much preferred to take it to his grave and let Stiles find happiness elsewhere blissfully unaware. “Just like I know I’m yours, that’s why I’m immune. Mates can’t hurt each other, not without a lot of struggle at least...Your quills can’t paralyze me because they’re a part of you.”

Stiles stared back at the wolf, silent. ‘W-What? Derek...What do you mean we’re mates? That doesn’t make any sense.’

Derek swallowed when Stiles lowered himself to the ground and took a slow step back. Shaking his head, Derek tried to explain. “I didn’t-You don’t want this, I get it, but we have to figure out some way to get you back to normal and if this.” He waved a hand between the two of them. “Is the reason then...Well, I don’t know what to do?!” Derek threw his hands up in defeat backing away from the crouched animal to slump against the wall. Folding his arms over his knees as he rasped. “I can’t force you to be my mate Stiles, I never would, I was content to just have you near but even if we stay like this I don’t know how to get you back to normal.”

Stiles trembled from where he lay, everything, everything had changed and Stiles wasn’t sure what to do. His claiming Derek, mates, Derek actually being his? None of this made any sense, looking up the only thing that did make sense was the look of guilt on Derek’s face. As if he was the reason that Stiles was stuck, he wasn’t, that achievement belonged to the douche hunters, but knowing Derek as he did...Stiles saw it from Derek’s perspective. Stiles wasn’t sure what to make of the whole mate's thing, couldn’t really focus on that to be truthful, avoiding that sounded amazing for the moment. But until he faced that he could do one thing. Slowly climbing to his feet but still hunkered down to appear smaller Stiles crossed the distance between himself and Derek. Sitting down beside him, leaning into his legs, he huffed.

‘This bites and I have no idea what to do with all this information, but it’s not your fault. Stop doing the guilt trip thing Sourwolf.’

Derek canted his head to the side, seeing Stiles sitting there, feeling him leaning against him. Derek nodded, he wasn’t sure what words Stiles had actually said but he knew that it was probably how he felt.  Being so bold he reached up and rubbed Stiles’ ears. “Next time I’ll let you bite him.”

‘Good.’ Stiles purred. ‘He deserves it.’

Derek smiled at Stiles purring, he knew it wasn’t because of the head rubbing, the teen just really-really liked the idea of maiming Deaton. Taking a deep breath the Alpha stared at the teen trapped in a feline's body. “I didn’t want this to happen.”

Stiles snorted. ‘You and me both.’ Stiles twisted his head to stare back at the older man.

Derek glossed over whatever Stiles’ noises meant. “I figured there was no point in telling you, you were human and humans don’t feel...It.” Derek sighed, lowering his head to shake it. Seemed easier that way.”

‘Yeah...Easy went out the door a long time ago Sourwolf. Could have waited a few days...Maybe a week or two before talking about this ya know? Screw Deaton and his idea’s.’ Stiles allowed himself to slide down onto the floor, resting on his belly. Well, if they were going to have this conversation, Stiles was going to speak his peace...Even if Derek couldn’t understand him. ‘You were never going to say anything, were you? Figures...You’re like that.” Stiles huffed.

Derek tilted his head, peering over his knee to see Stiles sprawled out beside him. The dramatic huff that had come from the feline had Derek wondering what Stiles might have been saying. “This doesn’t change anything.” He managed to choke out, despite knowing that it did. Derek was prepared to let Stiles go, despite them being mates there was nothing saying they had to be...It just meant that they wouldn’t really find peace if they decided to enter a relationship with someone else.

Stiles rolled onto his back so he could stare back at Derek all while remaining stretched out, he chittered in laughter. ‘You’re a dumbass.’

Derek frowned, he knew he was being laughed at. “Fine.” He muttered sourly. “It does, but that’s not really the issue...I still don’t know how to get you back to normal, whatever great idea Deaton might have had for this revelation, didn’t work.”

‘No shit.’ Stiles huffed. ‘I don’t think that man’s firing with all cylinders all the time, probably all that mystical voodoo shit he’s exposed to.’ The teen twisted to the other side, laying prone as he watched the Beta’s file back in. To them it just looked like he was laying beside Derek, they had no idea what had gone on and Scott wasn’t with them. Stiles figured his friend was still tidying things up with Deaton, he would have preferred getting the option to bite the man. 

“What happened?” Erica demanded to know, folding her arms over her chest.

‘You’re funny, that never works on him and I couldn’t tell you even if I felt like talking about it.’

Erica’s attention shot down to Stiles a moment. “You aren’t helping.” She muttered, her gaze locking back to Derek. “Well?”

Stiles huffed upon being ignored, rolling back to his feet the Bastilli walked in a circle rubbing against Derek’s legs before sitting at his feet. Derek frowned, unsure what that meant. Either way, the Alpha shook his head to Erica. “Deaton was wrong, it doesn’t matter.”

“Wrong about what?” Boyd asked curiously.

Derek sighed. “He had a stupid theory about Stiles, it’s why he stabbed me with his quill.”

“Uh-huh and that would be?” Erica waved a hand, a gesture that was supposed to make Derek continue talking. The Alpha did the opposite, turning his attention to Stiles.

“We’ll talk more about everything when you’re back to normal.”

Stiles gave a nod. ‘You bet your wolfy ass we will.’ 

Derek smirked at the grumbles he got in reply, leveraging himself back to his feet, Derek dusted himself off and shot Erica a warning look. “Where’s Scott?”

“Trying to get Deaton to talk.” Isaac retorted dryly. “I don’t think he was having much luck with that.”

Derek rolled his eyes as he pushed past them, that was not surprising. Deaton was an asshole at the best of times, finding amusement in lording information over people. Worse yet was when he kindly forgot certain pieces of information, using those things as a ‘teachable’ moment that almost always got someone hurt. Derek sincerely wondered how hard it would be to get a new druid. 

Making his way around the couch, Derek made to sit in his chair, he had a lot to think about the least of which being coming up with some idea on how to get Stiles back to normal. Derek glared when someone else took his seat, namely the person he had been thinking about. Stiles twisted about, sitting on the chair and chittering.

“Move.” Derek pointed only to glare when Stiles stretched, balancing precariously on the chair before sitting once more. Derek raised a brow to the cat's actions, knowing that the teen was just having a spot of fun because he could. Before he could argue with the teen, he twisted to the sound of the door slamming. He growled at Scott. “Watch it.”

Scott shook his head. “Do you know what he said?!”

Derek snorted. “No, but I’m sure it’s just as helpful as what he was doing in here.”

Scott grit his teeth, his gaze going from Derek to Stiles and then back to Derek. “He said you could change this.”

Derek twisted about to fold his arms over his chest. “Really?” He snorted. “And did he say how?”

Stiles gave a grumble as he followed Derek’s train of thought. ‘Yeah, did he say anything?’

Scott growled, storming over and surprising everyone by grabbing Derek’s bicep and dragging him away from Stiles. Derek caught his feet after just a step though he stumbled in the beginning. Growling at Scott’s manhandling, he tore his arm free and hissed. “What?!”

Scott glared back, gesturing a hand towards Stiles, the cat still perched on Derek’s chair. “The whole not a word thing dude.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me dude.”

“I’m serious!”

Derek gave the younger Alpha a benign expression, tearing himself away from the small huddle that Scott had attempted to use to keep their conversation a ‘secret’. Never mind that everyone in the house could hear them, sometimes Derek was still amazed at the teen's idiocy. Walking back to Stiles, Derek muttered in a bored tone. “Stiles, we’re mates.”

The cat gave a nod, mostly because he knew what this was about and he found it inexorably hilarious to watch everyone sputter, more so Scott who had been having a breakdown over something.

Coming to stand before the Bastilli, Derek smirked as he heard Scott freak out from behind him. Giving the intelligent green eyes a look, he muttered. “Get down.”

Stiles chittered. ‘Alright, but only because you helped make Scott have an aneurysm.’ Stiles hopped down from the chair, watching as Derek sat only to pick up his book on Bastilli. It wouldn’t really help in getting Stiles back to normal, but Derek was at his wits end on that avenue. Might as well learn what he could about Stiles’ new form.

“Wait he knows?!”

And there it was. Stiles chittered, mocking his friend who had finally found his voice. ‘Yes, he knows.’ Stiles cackled as he twisted to stare back at his friend. 

Scott's mouth was open a hair as he pointed to Stiles. “Seriously dude? You’re just...Okay?”

Derek snorted as he muttered from behind the book. “We dealt with it.”

Stiles glanced back. ‘You mean we both flipped out and decided to steadfastly ignore it for the sake of our sanity.’

Derek looked up when he heard Stiles grumbling, he arched a brow when he found the teen was staring at him. Whatever he was saying obviously directed his way, Derek shrugged. 

Stiles chittered, amused, turning back to stare at Scott the Bastilli twisted its head aside. ‘Problem?’ 

Stiles attention drifted to the couch when Isaac came to jump onto it, hanging over the back of it with a smile. “So you know?”

Stiles gave a nod. ‘Why did you?’ The broad smile on the teens face leant Stiles into thinking that the blonde was aware, the passive expressions on the rest of the pack seemed to back that up. ‘Figures, I was the only one who wasn’t in the know.’ Stiles turned and hissed at Derek, the Alpha gave him a bored look.

“I can’t understand you.”

‘I know.’ Stiles petulantly replied in a huff, rising to walk over to the couch, staring up at Isaac who stared down at him.

“Hey.”

‘Hi.’

“So...How many jokes about dogs chasing cats up trees have you made?” Isaac grinned as he changed the subject when Stiles showed his dislike of how things had been going.

Stiles chittered, laughing despite only having made a few to his own knowledge. ‘Not enough given the present situation.’ Jumping up to stand on his back legs, a front leg resting on the back of the couch, Stiles gave a gentle rub of his head on Isaac’s chin. 

The blonde laughed, reaching over to scratch the cats head. “Hey...I didn’t ask, is your neck okay? I mean Deaton did yank the quill out.”

Stiles fell back to the floor and shook out his fur, he twisted his head back as if he wanted to lick the area but it was too close to his ear for him to reach. Sighing when it proved fruitless, Stiles looked back up to Isaac. ‘It stings a bit, but I’m alright.’

“Dude.” Scott came to kneel, a smile on his face. “So...Hey you know things.” He shrugged helplessly.

Stiles snorted back at him, Scott grimaced as he got hit by the cat’s spray. ‘You deserve that.’

Wiping his face, Scott gave a betrayed look. “I know, I know, I should have said something but-”

“I would have killed you.”

Scott sighed, waving a hand towards Derek. “My point is made.”

Stiles laughed. ‘Aww how cute, you were threatened by my mystically linked boyfriend.’ Twisted a bit to stare back at Derek, he chittered. ‘Did he give you the shovel talk?’

Scott frowned when Stiles seemingly had some sort of conversation with both of them, Derek hadn’t even bothered to look up from his book not that it bothered Stiles as the teen quickly turned back to face him.

‘You know if I didn’t love you like a brother I might never speak to you again, mystical boyfriend crap is kinda important and here you were just listening to me pine away like some kind of girl with a first-time crush.’ Stiles bared his teeth a bit, though not for long. He wasn’t too angry about it, more shocked than anything.

Scott nodded his head, he might not be able to understand Stiles’ words, but he had a good idea of the context. Part of being friends for so long, words weren’t always necessary. The pack looked on as Scott got lectured by Stiles, about what they could only guess. Stiles had a lot to say apparently as the cat continued to give small growls and grumbles, occasionally hissing or baring his teeth.

Derek looked over the rim of his book, smirking as Stiles ‘spoke’ with Scott about everything. He let his attention fade back to the book he’d been reading over the last couple days. He’d be relieved when he could be tuning out actual conversations again rather than the growls and grumbles that were now in the background. Derek admitted silently to himself, he missed the teen's voice.

 

*********

 

After a very lengthy conversation, Stiles was sure that his point had been made. Scott had been smart enough to nod along while he chastised him, and when Stiles was through and left him to ponder it all over...Well, Stiles enjoyed the still befuddled look on his best friends face. It was fun, in a ‘I can’t talk so I might as well make you confused’ sort of way. Trotting around the couch, Stiles leaped up onto the surface and headbutted Isaac in the side who had been hanging over the back of it, the teen let out an oomph noise as he was bowled over by the large cat. Stiles chittered as Isaac twisted to glower back at him.

“Haha. Real funny.”

Stiles chittered. ‘I thought it was.’ Flopping to lay on his end of the couch, Stiles caught sight of Erica and Boyd, the pair occupying the same chair. ‘So...You’re mates huh? Guess nobody thought to explain that little tidbit of information. Nothing like assuming you’re just dating.’

Erica’s brow furrowed as Stiles clearly began talking to them, sighing when the boy paused as if waiting for an answer for something the girl muttered. “I’ll be glad when I can tell you to shut up again.”

Stiles snorted. ‘You miss my witting comebacks don’t even lie.’ Stiles huffed, twisting his head around, Isaac was smiling from where his now sock-clad feet had shoved at the Bastilli’s head.

“Yeah, I can annoy you too.”

Stiles tilted his head. ‘Ohhh really?’ Stiles climbed to his feet, stared the blonde down a moment and then unceremoniously wrapped his jaws around Isaac’s ankle and jumped down from the couch, mindful of his teeth Stiles pulled the boy off of the couch. Isaac flailing and giving a startled yelp as he fell only to be dragged across the floor, Stiles preened as he heard Erica, Boyd, and Scott laugh. 

“DUDE! What the hell?” Isaac shouted as Stiles dragged him across the floor, dropping his leg once the teen was clear of the coffee table. Stiles walked up the length of the teen, chittered in his face, licked him upside the head and then coolly walked back to the couch where he jumped up and sprawled out the entire length of it.

Isaac sputtered as he wiped at his face, grimacing, only to twist to glare back at Stiles. Seeing the Bastilli spread across the length of the couch, Isaac climbed to his feet and folded his arm across his chest. “Yeah, that was really funny.”

“It was.” Erica cried out with glee. “It was amazing.” 

Scott was trying in vain to stifle his own laughter into his arm as he leaned over the back of the couch. It wasn’t working and Isaac’s annoyed growl was proof of it. Scott waved his other arm. “You had it coming Isaac, it’s Stiles man...What’d you think he was going to do?”

Isaac huffed, walking back to the couch he glared down at Stiles. “Move of I sit on you.”

Stile canted his head at the teen and then puffed up all his quills. ‘Try me.’ The Bastilli grumbled as if in a warning.

Isaac rolled his eyes before complaining. “That’s cheating and that really wouldn’t stop me.” The Beta exclaimed factually. “I’d just fall over on top of you.”

‘And that’d be smart, I wonder if my quills compound on each other?’ The cat grumbled a bit staring down at its own body before sighing. He pulled his legs in, shifting around until he was curled up, paws tucked neatly into his belly as his tail came to fold over his maw.

Isaac smirked as he took a seat, staring at the very cat-like pose his friend had adopted. Isaac looked up when Scott patted him on the shoulder, giving the Beta and amused grin.

“He full-on licked you.” The man snickered.

Isaac glowered up at the Alpha. “So.” He pouted.

“So that’s freakin hilarious.” Erica added.

“Stiles.” Scott called, watching as green eyes opened over the crest of the Bastilli’s tail. “Did Isaac taste like Oranges?”

Isaac twisted around and punched at Scott, the Alpha laughed as he dodged the angry Beta.

Stiles chittered into his tail. ‘No, but he didn’t really taste bad which is kinda disconcerting, to be honest.’

Isaac glowered back at the Bastilli unsure what Stiles was saying about him but figuring it was some comment that would have had him arguing against the other teen. Settling into his seat, Isaac muttered. “When you’re human again I’m going to get you back.”

“You’re just saying that because he has the quills to fight back against you.” Erica sassed. “Figure it like this Isaac, this is payback for everything that you’ve ever done while he was human.”

‘I agree with this.’ Stiles chittered in amusement. 

Isaac gave a curious glance towards Stiles and his noises before looking back at Erica. “Fine, then what about you?”

She huffed. “He loves me.”

The chittered that came afterward had Isaac laughing right alongside Stiles while Erica glowered. Boyd chuckled pulling his girlfriend against himself and laying his head on her shoulder. “It’s Stiles, he laughs at everything.” That seemed to calm her somewhat.

‘That’s what you think.’ Stiles replied casually. ‘I just find all of you amusing, more so because you have no idea what I’m saying and are assuming the worst. Part of me should be hurt by that but the larger portion of me is too damn amused to be upset.’ 

The pack listened to Stiles long-winded comment, ultimately discarding it as they had all his others, as it wasn’t like any of them could possibly hope to understand him. 

“So...What now?” Isaac tilted his head back to stare up at Scott as if the Alpha had all the answers.

Scott sighed, looking over to Stiles. “Guess we try and think up ways to get him back to normal.”

‘Oh this will end well.’

 

*********

 

It didn’t end well, after numerous failed attempts, some more serious than others, Stiles got fed up and sauntered his way over to Derek. Flopping down beside the Alpha’s chair and growling. 

‘Make them go away.’

Derek looked over the side of the chair seeing the despondent reaction to all the failed attempts, he’d listened, of course, some of their attempts had been good in theory but had gotten them no closer to having a regular human-shaped Stiles. Giving a shake of his head, Derek let his hand come down over the arm of the chair and stroke the cat’s neck. Stiles sighed, Derek smirked at the teen's reaction to the calming action. 

It was funny how Derek would have never been able to be this affectionate, close, to the teen if he were human, but as he was, a Bastilli, it was so much easier. Derek wasn’t sure how to feel about that, whether he should be angry with himself for feeling so disconnected with Stiles or relieved for having managed to keep himself away while the teen was ignorant of their connection. 

Now that Stiles was aware Derek knew it would be all the harder to retain that aloofness, he didn’t know how Stiles felt about the fact that they were mates if the teen felt anything towards him. He should, at least on a physiological level but that didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Just because they were mates didn’t mean that they had to stay together, they’d hate it, being apart or at least they should. Derek had, but again the wolf had no idea how the connection felt for Stiles since he wasn’t a wolf. He wondered though, wanted to talk to the teen about that and so much more, but for that to happen Stiles needed to be human. 

Shaking his head, jostling himself from all these heavy thoughts Derek looked over to the pack who were even now throwing out ideas to each other on how to get Stiles back to normal. He knew that they were just trying to help their packmate, but Derek thought they might be making things worse at the moment. Patting Stiles’ back, the Alpha muttered. “Go upstairs.” Stiles twisted his head around. Derek nodded. “They won’t go up there.” He promised, not only because he would bar them entry but because the pack would know better than to encroach upon their Alpha’s den.

‘You’re telling me to go hide in your room?’ Stiles was curious by the man's offer.

Derek gave a nod as if he might have understood, Stiles knew he hadn’t but at least for a brief moment it had felt nice to be on the same page. Stiles rose, Derek’s hand sliding off of his back. Canting around, the Bastilli looked up at the Alpha’s bedroom, it was a coward move to just go hideaway but Stiles was tired. Stiles pressed his head into Derek’s hand, rubbing on him a moment in thanks before silently walking off towards the stairs, Derek twisted in his seat to watch him go. When Stiles was safely tucked away in his bedroom did the Alpha call out to the pack.

“Enough, we’re not getting anywhere. Find something to do.” 

“Wait...Where’s Stiles?” 

Derek sighed when he heard the Beta’s begin to search for the teen. “He’s upstairs. Now find something else to do.” The questions that came swiftly from his answer had Derek scowling back at them all. “Find something else to do.”

Scott at least caught on faster than the others, there wasn’t going to be an easy way of getting an answer out of Derek. The older Alpha was getting annoyed and Stiles was already in hiding. Why that had happened Scott wasn’t sure, but he figured that Stiles wouldn’t go and hideaway without a good reason. He’d be too shy to just go up there or so he thought, but then again maybe Derek had watched him leave without comment thus giving his permission. The idea that Derek might have actually told Stiles to go hide wasn’t even on his mind, it was by far too far fetched. Turning his attention to the pack, Scott smiled. “So...What now?”

The Betas caught on soon after, they might not have liked it, the look Erica was giving him was proof enough of that. The small questions that Isaac still tried to pass by him were also a good indication of how confused they all were. Scott shook his head to everything, he wasn’t going to push Derek and he sure as hell wasn’t going to push Stiles. 

“Alright, come on.” Scott headed for the door, he had an idea.

“Wait...Where are you going?” Isaac stammered even as he climbed to his feet to follow.

“Outside, we’ve been cooped up a while and we’re not getting anywhere. So come on.” Scott waved a hand, shooting a look towards Boyd and Erica. Thankfully Boyd nudged Erica out of the chair, she huffed but followed suit. Scott ushered them all outside before shooting Derek a smile and a nod. The older Alpha gave a nod back. Scott was admittedly proud of himself as he took the Beta’s outside to let off some steam. Being cooped up wasn’t helping any of them, least of all their relationship with Stiles. As much as Scott wished his friend would come with them, he had an inkling that the boy might just need some space right now.

 

********

 

Stiles had hopped up onto Derek’s bed, choosing steadfastly not to notice the fact that he was climbing into Derek Hale’s bed. Flopping down among the covers of the wolfs bed, Stiles sourly muttered to himself.

‘I really hate this.’ Of course, he did, being trapped and unable to truly communicate was painful. What interactions he could get across were amusing but rather juvenile, Stiles was sure that the pack was getting just as fed up as he was given their latest bout of ‘fix the Stiles’ that they had going on. Sighing, Stiles curled up on the bed tucking himself in tightly as he had on the couch but this time completely covering his own face with his tail. Shielding himself from the world at large, closing his eyes Stiles allowed himself to push the world away and sink deeper into himself. Maybe he’d be lucky enough to find the key to change himself back. 

 


	29. Wandering through the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott takes the Beta's on a hike to get them out of the loft and hopefully lower the stress of the pack after so many failed attempts to get Stiles back to normal. Derek and Stiles have a 'conversation' about his inability to change back before the Alpha decides to follow Scott's lead and take Stiles on a hike of their own. Stiles relishes his new found abilities as a death cat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, wasn't so sure that I was going to get a chapter out this week. This was my last pre-made chapter and I was freaking out a bit about writing another as I had a serious case of writer's block. So bare with me if the next few updates are slower or if the chapters are shorter, doing the best I can.

“Where are we going?”

Scott shook his head, he didn’t really have all that figured out, but he knew that being outside would do them all some good. Hopefully, it would help Derek and Stiles too. 

“Scott.”

The Alpha shook his head once more. “Come on.”

“We’re just wandering.”

“And?” He shot back without ever glancing over his shoulder, he knew they’d follow him if not because they intended to go along with him then because of idle curiosity. The huffing sound that Erica gave proved that the girl was irritated enough to follow, complaining all the way, but following none the less. 

Boyd was always silent, getting the teen to talk was far more tedious than trying to get him to shut up. Sometimes they’d forget he was even there, he was always that way, silent and still. Erica was the direct opposite of that, loud, moving, full of life and with an attitude to match. Isaac was somewhere in the middle, Scott couldn’t help but notice that Stiles would have been making a comparison to the three bears, him being goldilocks most likely due to his friend's horrible sense of humor. 

“So what? We just wander about in the woods for a few hours?” Erica clipped. “What’s the point of that?”

“Exercise.”

The dry snort that his comeback got him just had Scott smirking. He knew she wouldn’t fall for it, but it was sometimes fun to mess with her. “Does it really matter? Can’t you just walk around outside without questioning it?” He twisted to stare back at her, the pack having come up short as they talked.

“I can walk around all the time without questioning it, but that’s mostly when the shit hasn’t hit the fan and leaving part of our pack behind is just wrong.”

Scott took a deep breath. “Stiles is with Derek, I really don’t think either of them is in danger.”

“Never said they were.”

Ignoring the girl's short retort, Scott continued. “No matter how Stiles might have played it off, we all know he wasn’t aware of them being mates. That had to have happened while I was busy with Deaton...That’s a big thing to get used to.”

Isaac shrugged. “He seemed fine.”

“It’s Stiles,” Scott muttered. “He’s having a complete mental breakdown and unable to do anything about it because he’s stuck as a cat.” The teen stated sourly.

Isaac hummed. “Yeah...Okay, but then why did he go upstairs to Derek’s bedroom? Shouldn’t he be avoiding him, spending more time with us?”

Erica nodded. “He’s right. Stiles must not be all that worried about it.”

Scott rolled his eyes. “Trust me, he’s worried...He’s probably just trying to sort through things...He’s liked Derek since we first bumped into him.”

“Long time to keep a flame burning,” Erica smirked.

“Yeah...But they’re mates so that makes sense.”

“Stiles was human,” Boyd interjected. “He didn’t know.”

Scott sighed. “I know, but he’s aware now and that’s gotta be just as freaky to him as it is to be stuck as a supernatural cat. I’m just saying why don’t we give them both a break, maybe they’ll talk to each other now that no ones around...Besides, you can’t say that you’ve enjoyed spending hours upon hours cramped up in the loft.”

Silence.

Nodding, Scott twisted back around and took off running, he smirked when he heard the Beta’s give chase. He’d keep them busy, clear his own head in the process, and more importantly give Stiles some time to figure stuff out.

 

*********

 

Stiles stayed sprawled out on Derek’s bed, well he hadn’t been sprawled out originally but the small lapse in consciousness known as a nap changed that. He hadn’t been asleep long, couldn’t have been since Scott and the others hadn’t returned. Then again they had been known to go on long hikes, running through the woods using all that supernatural stamina to their advantage. Stiles knew he could have kept up as he was now, but was curious to know if he’d retain such things when he managed to get himself human once more. That was for later, he was still very much not human.

Sighing, the teen rolled over onto his back and glared up at the ceiling, his tail swaying on top of the covers. ‘This would be so much easier if I was a wolf...At least that’s what everyone else keeps saying.’ The teen mused. ‘Then again, I don’t think that’s just a theory, but just proof that cats can be dicks.’ He chittered to himself, granted calling himself a dick sucked, Stiles still found the whole concept amusing. 

“What are you laughing at?”

Stiles canted his head backward to see Derek climbing the stairs to his bedroom.

‘Cat’s.’ Stiles replied uselessly.

Derek smirked when he got an ‘answer’ standing at the top of the stairs awkwardly, the Alpha took a breath and then braced himself for a negative reaction. “The others are gone, now might be a good time to try again.”

‘Try what again?’ Stiles grumbled. ‘Last I checked we got nowhere.’

Derek came further into the room, crossing the divide and walking past Stiles to take a seat at the head of his bed. Sitting there in an aloof manner, the Alpha didn’t stare at the cat but instead chose to focus on a nearby wall.

“I don’t know if Deaton actually had any clue as to what is keeping you like this.”

‘My guess is he didn’t, probably just being a dick.’

Derek’s eyes trailed back to the Bastilli which was sprawled out on its back staring up at him, it was a rather childish appearance for such a strong being. He smirked, it just radiated Stiles. “I know I asked before, but now that you’re aware...Can you feel a difference? Between yourself and the Bastilli or...I don’t know, some rift?”

Stiles huffed, blowing out a thick breath of air. ‘Dude, I don’t know what to tell you, there is nothing going on here except me.’

Derek let his head fall back against the bannister. “There has to be something.”

‘Probably is...I think we just suck at this.’ Stiles admitted freely. ‘Then again, there really isn’t a manual for this shit...Unless there’s some magical mojo in that book you’ve been reading but I think I could trust you to inform me of that.’

Derek looked towards Stiles as the cat made the odd noises that made up its speech patterns. He wanted to understand the youth, but it just wasn’t possible yet. Despite knowing it was a stupid question, the man asked. “You do want to change back right?” Derek tensed when Stiles rolled over in a hurry only to bare his teeth and roar.

Derek grimaced at the loud noise, muttering sourly. “It was just a question, quiet down.”

‘No! Why would you even ask me that?’ Stiles shook his head in a jerky motion. ‘How stupid are you Derek? Why would I want to be stuck like this?! I’d rather be bitching and moaning about movies with everyone and taunting you for your Sourly ways.’

Derek sighed as the cat began to strike up quite the ruckus from his question, he shouldn’t have asked. “Stiles calm down, it was just a question.”

‘You calm down!’ Stiles bared his teeth. ‘I’m living this!’ The cat yowled, walking further up the bed to glower at Derek. 

The Alpha sighed, reaching out only to glare when Stiles growled at him, a real growl. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” Derek growled back. “I just needed to know.”

Stiles snorted, shaking his head before folding himself down onto the bed with an angry glare. He was well within Derek’s reach, something they were both aware of. Stiles wasn’t avoiding contact though, not after he’d made his annoyance clear, laying his head down on his paws the teen muttered. ‘I want to be normal again.’

Derek lowered his hand to the top of the boys head, scratching between the two velvety ears. “Calm down, there’s nothing else we can do, might as well not get worked up about it.” Derek grimaced when Stiles pulled his head back suddenly only to snatch up his hand in his mouth, place it firmly between his paws and then proceed to ‘chew’ on him. It didn’t hurt, but it was a pretty clear indication that Stiles was done with the ‘be calm’ faze of the conversation. 

The ever-pressing threat of the beast's teeth wasn’t nearly as alarming as it most likely should have been, Stiles wasn’t biting him, sure his teeth scraped his hand occasionally but the real intent was being made by the cats licking him. Derek wasn’t sure if this was Stiles way of annoying him or if this was just something that his ingrained instincts told him to do, regardless it was odd. Derek didn’t fight back, figuring that the worst that would happen was his hand becoming overly wet. It already was so there really was no point in struggling, the action seemed to be calming Stiles so Derek would allow it. Taking the time now that Stiles had something to occupy himself with, the Alpha spoke softly. “ If they come back, I’m going to move.”

Stiles stopped licking the Alpha a moment before humming. ‘Sure, you just go and try that.’ Then now that his challenge had been issued, Stiles realized just what exactly he’d been up to, stupid cat brain. Sighing, Stiles nosed Derek’s hand in a ‘you can go’ manner. Derek arched a brow when he was released, quickly commenting. “You didn’t know you were doing that did you?”

Stiles glared, but Derek shook his head. “You’ve done other stuff the same way...It has to be the Bastilli part of you overriding everything. You just need to locate it and find a way to reel it in.”

‘And then I’ll become a real boy?’ Stiles teased for his own enjoyment.

Derek met the luminous green orbs of the Bastilli, holding their gaze. “Just try.” Moving his still damp hand, he stroked the cats face before pulling back. “There has to be something you can latch onto, force the Bastilli part of you to yield.”

‘I don’t have any catnip Derek, and if this part of me has claws and teeth I’m screwed...I think it’ll have a better chance of using all those shiny tools better than I will.’ When Derek didn’t change his mind, Stiles was forced to concede. He might as well try, that way he could shove it in the stupid wolfs face that it failed. Closing his eyes, shifting his body around as if to get comfortable, Stiles focused internally. ‘Find the cat’ he told himself as if this was a giant where’s Waldo game, only instead of a stupid man in a sweater he had to find an Egyptian death cat. Easy right?

Stiles thought long and hard, trying to ascertain if there was a difference to be felt. Derek said that his mom and sister had felt something, it might have been the same but they both found ways to change themselves back by reigning in their wolfy counterparts. Stiles wasn’t so intuned with his own, after all, he’d just been tongue bathing Derek Hales hand. That did not speak of someone who had everything in order, it actually said the opposite. Stiles tried to force such thoughts from his mind, but he was finding it hard to focus. His mind had always flitted around like a spastic bird, but that’s what his Adderal was for, the teen really didn’t think the stuff would work now even if he could get his hands on some. 

‘Focus’ Stiles told himself. ‘Stop letting your mind go skydiving off a cliff.’ He was supposed to be ‘cured’ of whatever ailed him right? That was a perk of going all supernatural, it had worked for Scott and Erica so it had to work for him the same way. Granted ADHD might not truly fall under dramatically altering scenarios, but it was annoying so Stiles had hoped it might be fixed. So far, it wasn’t fixed. The teen let out a sigh, right, find the cat. His ears perked up a bit when he felt what could only be Derek’s warm hand stroking his head once more. It was crazy how good that felt, how good Derek was at giving his strange new form of attention. ‘We are totally talking about that.’ he told himself, granted that was going to be awkward conversation in a stream of awkward conversations. They had so much to talk about or at least that’s how it felt to Stiles. 

Forcing himself to focus once more, his mind having gone off track yet again, Stiles sunk into the gentle attentions Derek was giving him. ‘This is nice.’ It might not be what he needed to change back, but it was still nice. The loft was quiet and it was just him and Derek, that hardly ever happened and when it had in the past...It had been full of stuttered conversation, awkward ramblings and steadfast ignoring how his heart beat faster when he was around the man. Stiles knew Derek had sensed that at least, though he doubted the wolf had connected it to himself. He hoped he hadn’t, it was embarrassing and frustrating enough to find out that the whole pack knew about him and Derek and never thought to bring it up. His own best friend hadn’t brought it up, and sure Derek had threatened to kill them all, Stiles knew the Alpha wouldn’t do that...They should have known as well. Stiles sighed once more. ‘Damn it.’ he wasn’t focusing at all, he was the absence of focus right now. 

“Anything?”

Stiles opened his eyes, tilted his head up to stare at Derek and grumbled. ‘Do I look like a human to you?’

Derek stared down at the glowering cat, he smirked. “Guess not.” He huffed when Stiles shook his hand off to chomp on it, holding it in his mouth and silently muttering. ‘I’m annoyed and you’re not taking it seriously...So you don’t get this back.’ He felt something akin to pride at his own action, juvenile though it might be. This was enhanced when he saw the annoyed look on Derek’s face.

“Let go.”

Stiles grumbled back around the man’s hand. ‘No.’

Sighing Derek didn’t bother to try and free his hand, whatever purpose this was holding for Stiles seemed stupid but the teen had been forced to put up with a lot recently. So long as the pack didn’t return he’d allow it, besides it was kinda interesting to watch what he thought was Bastilli actions come across in Stiles own behaviors. It was that which had him commenting. “You do realize you’re holding my hand in your mouth right?”

Stiles snorted a bit. ‘Well, duh I’m the one who picked it up now wasn’t I?’ For all that bravado, Stiles blinked a few times and then muttered. ‘Damn it.’ He wasn’t sure where all the crossed wires in his brain kept going but he knew that he wasn’t all that appreciative of them. Releasing Derek’s hand, he licked it twice before glaring up at the man. Derek smirked.

‘Bite me.’ Stiles huffed as he laid his head back down on the bed. ‘This blows, I’m acting like a fucking cat and don’t you even say it! I know I’m a fucking cat...But I’m not either, I’m...Well okay, I can’t say human but I regularly have human packaging. That should count for something.’

Derek sighed as he listened to Stiles grumble, he was pretty sure it wasn’t directed at him seeing as the boy wasn’t looking his way. He was glowering into the bed covers, head propped on top of his paws. He hated seeing how morose the teen was getting from all of this, depressed at being stuck as he was. Shaking his head the Alpha moved, sliding off of the bed. Stiles twisted his head to follow him. “Come on.” He headed towards the stairs.

‘Huh?’

Derek stood at the top of the stairs, looking back at the Bastilli. “Come on, we’re going out.’

‘Out? You know that sounds like a date and that is altogether horrifying to contemplate...I mean I’ve thought about it before but then again I didn’t know we were mates and...Does that change things? I’m not sure if I like or dislike that-”

“Stiles.”

The teen blinked, looked back at the Alpha and nodded. Right, his mind had been wandering. Standing, he shook himself out and jumped down easily making up the distance between himself and Derek. Derek seemed pleased by his actions as he continued down the stairs, Stiles hot on his tail.

When the Alpha headed for the door, Stiles muttered. ‘We're going on another field trip? Oh joy.’

Derek glanced back to make sure the teen was following having heard him growling, he was so the Alpha continued to the door. Opening it and waiting for Stiles to exit before closing it behind himself. He didn’t bother with locking it, he knew that Scott wouldn’t have taken his keys, that and someone would have to be really stupid to try something with them. It wouldn’t have been the first time of course, but Derek and the pack were a united front and with the Argents backing them a lot of the threats of hunters had backed off. Not completely, this was proven by what happened with Stiles. 

The small noises that Stiles was making gave Derek some inclination that the teen was asking where they were going or what they were doing, he ignored him. Mostly because he found it somewhat amusing to make the man wait, and he didn’t have a particular destination in mind. They were just going to walk around, they might catch up with the rest of the pack. Who knows. 

‘I can’t help but feel that you have no idea what we’re doing.’ Stiles muttered sourly as he walked beside Derek, the Alpha didn’t even have the courtesy to look down at him. Rude. They walked for a good ten minutes before Derek finally said something.

“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to be outside for a bit, you have to feel cramped being stuck inside.”

‘A bit...I mean it’s not too bad, but yeah it’s kinda nice to have a change in scenery.’

Derek continued walking, Stiles sauntering beside him through the woods. It was as they were walking through a more dense pair of trees that Stiles muttered. ‘I think you need to come out and do some gardening man...This is nuts.’ Derek didn’t reply to his quip but then again that wasn’t really all that different than when he was human, other than it would have earned him an eye roll. He missed the eye roll and wasn’t that just sad? 

Coming through the thicket of trees, Stiles trotted ahead, grumbling the whole way about the stupid nature of his stupid death cat ways. Then out of the blue, the teen stretched himself out, standing on his hind legs against the trunk of a tree. It felt night to stretch like that, it felt even better when he allowed his claws to unsheath themselves and on the downward fall back to the earth they pierced the wood and ripped it apart. Stiles shook himself, took a step back and stated. ‘Damn, I got claws.’

Derek had watched the entire thing in silence, it was interesting to see just how tall Stiles could stretch himself out as. Seeing yet another example of how fierce the Bastilli’s claws were had the Alpha shaking his head, given the noises Stiles was making the teen was impressed. 

Stiles twisted about. ‘You see that?’

Derek smiled back at Stiles before steadfastly reminding him. “You do that to the furniture and I’ll let Scott find a way to file those.”

Stiles gave a snort. ‘Like he’d have the balls to, but don’t worry I’m not going to scratching post your house.’ He turned to look back at the tree who had faired his attentions. ‘Poor tree...No match for the death cat’ He trotted past it, having said his piece. 

Derek shook his head, leaving the destroyed tree behind and falling in line behind Stiles who was now the leader of their little walk. Stiles didn’t go far, slowing down shortly so they could be closer to one another. 

Stiles canted his head towards Derek. ‘You know for a death cat I can’t help but think that minus the death catly ness, I might be kinda cute. I wonder what these things look like when they’re little...’ Then as he thought about it more, he added. ‘Then again, I don’t think they’re all that cuddly when they’re getting in those quills and can paralyze anything that pisses them off. Kids are little terrors, don’t even want to consider what a pissed off baby could do to you.’ He chittered to himself, highly amused at his observations.

Derek just shook his head, whatever Stiles was saying obviously amused himself. Given Stiles history of witty comments, he was sure that the boy was entertaining himself in the same manner he always did. Calling out things that others wouldn’t notice and playing off of them. 

Stiles looked around, this seemed like a nice place to rest, there were a few trees and more importantly a big rock. Stiles ran and leaped up to it, landing with ease as his strong legs propelled him up to the top of it. Stiles flopped down, allowing his tail to hang over the side while his legs tucked into him. Stiles chittered down at Derek. ‘Kneel before me.’

Derek watched the entire thing when the cat chittered down at him Derek replied. “Whatever it is you’re saying right now...No.”

Stiles huffed, earning a smirk from Derek. ‘Asshole.’

Derek approached the rock that Stiles had leaped onto, it stood at the height of his neck, tall enough for the cat to stare down upon him with the height of his body. “You wanna rest here?”

Stiles tilted his head. ‘I’m not really tired, but sure why not.’ He gave a nod, watching on as Derek sat down beside the rock, reclining against it. Stiles watched him a moment or rather the top of his head seeing as Derek was staring off into the woods. Mentally shrugging, Stiles took a deep breath of the fresh air all around them. This was nice and Derek had been right, this was better than being cooped up in the loft some more. It felt like he could stretch out, which was stupid seeing as he’d been stretched out on Derek’s bed just a few moments ago. This was different somehow, maybe it was the fresh air? Stiles didn’t lament the reason too long, settling his head on his paws he murmured to Derek. ‘So...What’s new?’ He didn’t get any reply from Derek, the Alpha seemingly ignoring him. ‘Sourwolf.’

 

********

Scott and the others had run a few miles, enough to see them sweating and in far better moods. He smiled back at the Beta’s as they came in a semi-circle formation. Even Erica was smiling, the earlier moodiness no longer affecting the opinionated girl. 

“Ready to head back?”

The Beta’s nodded, not even a pause in their step as Scott started on the long run back. It wasn’t as break necked as before but it was still far faster than any human could achieve. The air felt good as it wafted across their sweaty forms, ghosting it with coolness as their body as they ran. Scott had to admit this had done him far more good than he’d originally thought it would, it had just been a distraction for the Beta’s but now...The Alpha knew this was just what they needed. The loft had become stifling, the air of uncertainty around Stiles and his lack of progress in turning human again was choking them all. Scott made a mental note to tell Derek to go for a run, lord knew if anyone was going to need it Derek would. Scott knew why, of course, Derek had chosen to keep things quiet about them being mates. Even if he and the rest of the pack thought he was being stupid, Derek was just that kind of person. He didn’t want to be rejected, his past said as much. Stiles...Well, Scott knew that his friend had been harboring a flame for the Alpha for a long time and hopefully, this new development would be positive for both of them. So long as the pair of them could get their heads out of their asses and talk about it. Scott smirked to himself, yeah that would be a feat. Shaking his head he called back to the pack. “Come on!”

They gave small bits of laughter as Scott picked up the pace some more. He wasn’t really in a hurry to get back but he figured that it was fair to give Derek a break of the loft too. Because if there was one thing Scott knew it was how horrible Derek could be when he got annoyed enough. They should have hit annoyed a long time ago, especially after Deaton’s little stunt. Yeah, time to give Derek a break.

 

*******

 

Derek frowned when something smacked him in the side of the head, he’d had his eyes closed, enjoying the wilderness. He knew who it was hitting him, he just wasn’t sure what part of that person it was. Canting his head back his eyes open to glower up at Stiles, he asked. “Did you need something?” The growl in his voice earned him some laughter. Derek blinked in surprise when Stiles smacked him in the side of the face again, with his tail. Derek watched the appendage leisurely sway after it had backed away from having struck him. “Really Stiles?”

The cat chittered back at him. ‘Really, do you know how absurd you look right now, like complete mental breakdown from getting bitch-slapped by my tail.’

Derek sighed as he climbed to his feet, not giving the teen another chance to abuse him the same way again. It would just feed into Stiles own amusement at torturing him and the others with his new form in compensation for his inability to communicate. Derek dusted himself off as he stared back at Stiles, the cat huffed at him. Derek smirked, he’d been right. “Are you ready to go?”

‘Go where?’ Stiles tilted his head to the right, unsure what the Alpha meant by that.

Derek didn’t answer the curious cat, knowing that Stiles would have no choice but to follow him. Rather he headed off into the woods, smirking to himself when he heard a series of noises from the disgruntled teen before the cat leaped down and chased after him. Derek looked down at Stiles, seeing the cat glowering up at him.

‘Rude.’ Stiles muttered. 

Derek looked straight ahead, not feeling an ounce of guilt for having forced the boy to follow. In all they didn’t go far, Derek lead him to a nearby creek the sounds of the water bubbling over the rocks was simple but soothing.

‘Are we trying to go all zen-like again?’ Stiles taunted. ‘Because I hear having a CD of whales helps too.’

Derek ignored whatever sassy remarks Stiles was no doubt making about their arrival at the creek. Derek knelt down and took a drink.

‘Dude, is that even healthy?’ Stiles trotted up to be beside the Alpha.

Derek canted his head as he shook his hands free of the residual moisture. “What?”

Stiles huffed. ‘Dude you full-on drank from some random creek in the woods.’ The teen glanced back to the water warily, lord knew what was in there. Just because the water looked clear didn’t mean anything, Stiles knew that.

“It’s clean Stiles.”

‘So says the idiot who just drank from it.’

Derek shook his head at the grumbles he got in reply, he pointed further upstream. “It’s a natural spring, the water’s purified from an underground geyser and the rocks.” Then because he knew what kind of remark he was bound to get regardless, Derek pointed out. “Dirty water wouldn’t hurt us, not like we can catch anything.”

Huh...Okay, so Derek had a point there. Not only for the nature lesson about the creek but, yeah they were supernatural and if a bullet couldn’t kill them what would a small bacterium have over them? Shrugging internally Stiles knelt down and sniffed at the water, smelled clean, then again how could water smell clean? Huffing Stiles allowed himself to taste it, tasted good, cold. Stiles took a few leisurely laps at it, relishing the coldness before sitting up and giving a shake to rid his maw of the water droplets that clung to it. Gazing up at Derek, Stiles commented. ‘Where too next oh great scout leader?’

Derek raised a brow at the cat’s commentary when Stiles didn’t do anything else Derek figured it was safe to move on. He jumped over the creek, making it to the other side easily enough. He twisted back to watch as Stiles paced back and forth a bit, he chuckled. “Problem?”

‘Screw you, man...I am not getting drenched in this cold ass water.’

Derek chuckled at the growls and grumbles, the ones that proved that Stiles was no doubt cursing his name. “Just jump Stiles, you’ll make it.”

Stiles huffed. ‘If I don’t I am dragging your ass into the creek.’ Stiles rounded about, squared his shoulders and dug his feet into the earth. His back legs prepared to spring him forward up and over the creek. Blowing out a breath, Stiles ran and leaped inwardly surprised with how easy it was to leap across the water more so when he stuck the landing. He was a few feet ahead of Derek, but as he turned to stare at the Alpha Stiles laughed. ‘Dude that was awesome!’

Derek smirked as he took in what had to be joy from the teen’s experiment with his new form. “Easy right?”

Stiles nodded. ‘So easy...Wow, wonder what else I can do?’

Derek walked past him. “Come on.”

‘Right behind you oh fearless leader.’ Stiles chittered as he ran to keep up with Derek. This outing was at least proving to be entertaining. Far better than moping around in the loft wishing to be a real boy again. There was some fun to be had from being stuck in a cat body, maybe Derek had known that Stiles wasn’t sure. Either way, he was prepared to follow the Alpha throughout the woods and find out. 

 

**********

 

When Scott and the others returned to the loft, they stood in obvious confusion. It was empty, the two occupants that they had left behind had left them behind...No one knew where they went either.

“Okay...So where’d they go?” Isaac looked to Scott as if the Alpha would have the answers.

Scott shook his head, he had no idea...Well, that wasn’t true he knew they couldn’t have gone far. Derek wasn’t about to take Stiles anywhere near town. “They must have gone for a walk of their own.” The teen let out a small sigh. “I can’t imagine that they’re having a good time though...No matter how Stiles was acting you know he’s flipping the hell out right now.”

Erica gave a small bark of laughter. “Flipping the hell out doesn’t cover what that boy is doing, and can we all agree that Derek not murdering Deaton for this shit is like a monumental achievement?”

Scott and Isaac glowered at the girl even as Boyd shook his head. 

“Derek wouldn’t kill Deaton...Even if he did, kinda reveal stuff.” Isaac grimaced when he was done saying his opinion. 

“You didn’t see how he reacted.” Scott huffed as he recalled how angry Derek had gotten, how close Stiles had come to attacking Deaton. “Stiles was actually more upset.”

“Gee I wonder why?” Erica rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think it was about Deaton pulling his quill...Not entirely.” Scott shrugged. “I think he was more upset that Deaton stabbed Derek with it.”

“Oh.” Erica frowned a moment before nodding. “Do you think he senses it?” She looked at Boyd. The other teen shrugged, not sure.

“Either way, if Derek hadn’t stopped Stiles, he probably would have taken a chunk out of Deaton at the very least paralyzed him to give him a taste of his own medicine.” Scott gave a small smirk at that, at the time it had been terrifying but now looking back Deaton did kinda deserve it. 

“Derek’s immune to Stiles’ quills.” The pack blinked a few times at Scott, the Alpha nodded. “Deaton already knew that...Or at least that’s the theory he was testing.”

“Because they’re mates?” Erica questioned.

Scott nodded, he didn’t know much about how that all worked, but by the glance that Erica and Boyd just shared, it had to mean something. Scott gave a sidelong look at Isaac, the other teen just shrugged, he was just as clueless as Scott was. Shaking his head the Alpha left the entranceway of the loft, finding a comfortable spot on the couch. “They’ll come back when they’re through with their own walk.”

“Or Stiles chewing out Derek,” Erica muttered with a smile as she and Boyd took up their preferred seating.

“He really wasn’t all that shocked by the looks of things.”

“He was playing us.” Erica snorted. “Trust me, and Scott.” She shot with a wink. “He’s freaking the hell out and more than likely giving Derek an earful whether or not he can understand him.”

“More so cause he can’t,” Scott said as he canted his head back to lean on the couch. “And enjoying it the entire time.”

Issac smiled as he fell onto the other end of the couch. “Yeah probably...Stiles is like that.”

“Yeah.” It was a collective response that had the pack smiling to one another.

 

************

 

Stiles had to admit, running through the woods and managing to keep pace with Derek, was a lot of fun. He’d never run this fast, or at least had never gotten to enjoy the feeling of running with the pack. Stiles was sure that he’d enjoy it, even more, when the rest of them were with them, but for now, Derek’s company was more than enough. 

Bounding over obstacles, running across the flat terrain and tearing up the underbrush with his paws. It was amazing, so was the sound of Derek laughing when Stiles got distracted by a rabbit bounding by only to nearly crash into a tree.

‘Asshole.’ Stiles ran around the tree and was quick to catch up with the wolf, Stiles didn’t think he’d ever had this much fun out in the woods. Least of all just fun with him and Derek with no one else hanging around.

Derek lead him on a winding path, no clear destination, not that it mattered since they were both enjoying the run. Stiles especially so since it gave him a chance to test out just how fast his Bastilli form was. The freedom to stretch out loosened something in him, Stiles didn’t focus on exactly what that was but it felt nice all the same. 

Derek didn’t stop running until they were both being forced to take deeper breaths, sweating from the long-winded run. Derek smiled as he leaned forward bracing his hands on his thighs as he watched Stiles flop over into the grass. Chuckling the Alpha called out. “Tired?”

Stiles lifted his head enough to stare back at Derek. ‘No...Never...UGH.’ Stiles let his head thunk back down into the grass earning another dry bark of laughter from Derek. ‘Sure, now you laugh freely only to taunt me. You’re cruel Derek Hale.’ Stiles panted, his rib cage going up and down in fast pants as he licked his own nose to moisten it. God that had been fun, he was tired but even Stiles realized that he wasn’t dead tired. Probably a good thing since they still had to go all the way back to the loft. 

“Did you enjoy it?”

Stiles righted himself, sitting up to lay on his belly. He stared back at Derek a moment before replying. ‘It was awesome.’

Derek watched the cat a moment longer, there was no signs of negativity and the gentle rumble he got was some kind of response. Positive or so he assumed. “The pack does that...Goes for runs.”

‘Duh, I’ve been around when you all go traipsing into the woods and leave me all alone.’

“You don’t have to stay behind anymore.” Derek intoned with a smirk. “Might even give Scott a run for his money.”

Stiles chittered in laughter. ‘Are you kidding? I’m making him eat my dust!’

The telltale laughter of the Bastilli had Derek shaking his head, yeah he figured that would amuse Stiles. If anything could spark some life in him it was the healthy competition he had with Scott. Well, it wasn’t so much a competition as a back and forth relay race to embarrassing the other. Straightening himself out now that he’d caught his breath, Derek watched Stiles a moment longer before staring off into the woods around them. It was peaceful out here, they were still a ways off from the old house but close enough for Derek to recognize everything. His family had run through these woods for generations, he’d run through these woods with his siblings...His mom and father, Peter. Derek swallowed, it still hurt to be out in this part of the woods. To know that they weren’t just still out here running, Derek twisted away only to make a hearty OOmph sound as he was taken to the ground. 

Stiles laughed as he stared down at Derek who’s eyes were pinched together from being knocked to the ground. ‘Ha, take that Sourwolf, I am kind of the jungle.’

Derek sighed as he opened his eyes more, he was once more pinned to the ground with Stiles looming overhead, the teen was making a series of noises that Derek ‘knew’ meant the boy was crowing over his make-believe victory. Rolling his eyes, Derek took great pleasure in rolling the teen off of him, the cat made a startled yowling sound as Derek threw him off. The Alpha chuckled as Stiles righted himself shaking his fur out before glaring back at him. “You started it.”

Stiles huffed. ‘Rude.’ He lopped forward the few steps it took to reach Derek, headbutting the man before rubbing against him all the way around. When he made it full circle Stiles collapsed onto the ground with a great fluff of his body. His head laying on Derek’s leg. ‘This has been nice.’

Derek smiled as Stiles scent marked him again before flopping into his lap, the teen at least appeared to be happy and after the last few days that was the most he could hope for. Far better than the previous mood to be sure, laying his hand down on the cat’s head Derek stroked his fingers through the fur. “If you want to pounce on people, pounce on Scott.”

Stiles chittered. ‘Oh, I will don’t you worry about that, but if you think I’m about to stop taking you to the ground you are sorely mistaken Sourwolf.’ The cat grumbled and growled as he spoke, pleased with himself for not only taking the Alpha werewolf down but for somehow along the way making Derek smile. Because when he canted his head up to stare at the wolf that was what he found, Derek was smiling and not in that half-smile that he was predominantly disposed to use. This was a full smile, his teeth on show as he beamed down at Stiles. ‘Huh...And I thought you were handsome when you were grumpy. You should smile more.’ Stiles purred all without realizing it.

Derek chuckled at the cat’s purring, he wasn’t sure if that was in response to what he’d said or response to whatever it was that Stiles himself had been saying. Either way, the sound of it was pleasant. A good indication of how the teen was feeling, relaxing to the Alpha as well as he knew now that Stiles was in a better place.  Rubbing the cats head, Derek stared off into the woods and didn’t try to fill the void of silence with anything other than their own breaths. Stiles seemed to be of a similar mind, the cat’s usual vocalizations were gone only the small purring that thrummed through the beasts chest as he reclined on Derek. It had definitely been a worthwhile trip.

 

*********

 

Scott and the others looked up when the door came open, Stiles came bolting forward and leaped up onto the couch, seemingly ignoring the fact that he’d jumped over the coffee table. The cat wasted no time in crashing his head into Scott’s, the Alpha winced at the harsh crack even as he listened to the cat ‘talk’ to him. Rubbing his head as the others looked on in amusement, Scott questioned. “What was that for?”

‘Dude, do you have any idea how cool it is to be able to jump over a freakin river?!... Okay, it wasn’t a rive but it was still way farther than I could have hoped to have jumped when I was human.’ The teen prattled on much to the others amazement.

Derek shook his head as he closed the door and came forward to look on at Stiles expressing his enthusiasm for their hike in the woods. Given the confused look on the other Alpha’s face, Derek figured he was lost. “He enjoyed the hike.”

Scott turned to stare at Derek, he nodded. “Yeah, wondered where you two went.” He chuckled when Stiles prowled forward to rub against him. “Happy to see you too buddy.” He smiled as he pushed Stiles’ head away. The cat purred at him, a sound that had Scott’s eyes widening a hair. Interesting.

Stiles didn’t hang around long though, he jumped down after having officially greeted the other Alpha. Walking around the coffee table and rubbing against Erica and Boyd’s legs as he came once more to sit beside Derek. ‘That was fun.’

Derek glanced down at the cat, knowing that Stiles was speaking to him alone. When the teen didn’t vocalize anything else the Alpha figured it was a passing remark and returned his attention towards the pack. “How far out did you all go?”

Isaac was quick to answer him, feeling rejuvenated after the long run. “Made it out past the old mill.”

Derek smirked, that was quite a ways out there. “Good.” The run will have done them good and given the jovial expressions they all wore Derek was right. “Stiles found out he can run without dying.”

Stiles hissed at him. ‘Asshole.’

The others laughed at the Bastilli’s swift reaction to the Alpha calling him out. ‘And here I was singing your praises, should have known better. You’re always going to be a Sourwolf.’ Stiles huffed before sauntering away from the man.

Derek smirked as he watched the boy leave him, seeking shelter with Scott up on the couch once more. A giant floof resounded as the Bastilli flopped down onto the couch surface being so bold as to lay his head on Scott’s leg as he’d done before with Derek out in the woods.

Scott blinked in surprise to his friend's actions but didn’t say anything about it, though he was cautious when putting his hand down on the cat’s neck. The Bastilli shifted a hair but didn’t do anything else, it took a few minutes for him to relax.

‘Shut up and stop being a baby, I’m not going to chew on you or anything.’ Stiles grumbled to his friend even as he refused to make eye contact.

Erica chuckled with how awkward Scott was with Stiles’ clinginess, you would think that Stiles was molesting him with the expression on the Alpha’s face. She leaned into Boyd, whispering despite knowing the pack would hear her if they were paying attention. “You’d think he’d never been around a house cat before.”

Boyd smirked, sharing a glint in his eyes with his girlfriend.

No one else noticed...Other than Derek. 

The Alpha shook his head, Erica had a point but he wasn’t about to bring that up. Far too prepared to allow Stiles to abuse the other Alpha as he saw fit, they were best friends so this should be nothing new to Scott. Trailing past the couch, he called out to them. “Figure out what you want to do for food,” Derek smirked as he fell into his chair just as the debate began, he knew how to keep them occupied.

Stiles chittered to himself as he listened to the back fall into a decent of arguing that was both amusing and heated in nature. Normally he took part in such things, but being trapped as he was just meant that he got to give commentary without fear of them sending him heated looks. Why attention to the cat making noises at them when they could shout at each other? Stiles wasn’t sure if Derek always did this on purpose or not but Stiles had to admit that there was a real possibility that the man did this for his own enjoyment. Leaving Scott, the Bastilli jumped down and sought out the other Alpha who was seated in his preferred place in the room. Stiles jumped up onto the window ledge with ease, staring back at Derek with a glint in his eye.

‘You did that on purpose didn’t you? Just because you like to hear them argue with each other.’

Derek raised a brow at the teen, unsure exactly what Stiles might be saying but already knowing that the comment was most likely related to what he’d just done. Stiles was smart and had always taken notice of things faster than others, it made sense that he would pick up on Derek’s motivations. “Problem?” He shot back.

The cat snorted as it glanced back at the rest of the pack who were at that very moment arguing over the fact that Peanut butter did not belong on noodles, ah the age-old argument over Thai food. Classic. Looking back at Derek, Stiles muttered. ‘You enjoy their suffering...Such a cruel Alpha you are Derek Hale.’

  
  



	30. The strangest dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles has a really strange dream, the Bastilli is there with him...Talking to him. Even stranger, what the cat has to say doesn't sound all that bad. The pack wakes up to a shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this is a change of pace, I update every other Sunday...But here's the thing. Today's my birthday and I felt that it would be kinda cool to give you all a present to celebrate it with me XD. Because I updat this story every other week there might be a delay in the next chapter...Depends on how much writing I get done...But hey, you get a chapter now right?

After yet another horrifying meal with the Pack, Stiles refused to acknowledge and fully intended to lock the memories in the deep dark passages of his mind. The pack had settled in to watch a movie, the series of arguments about which movie had nearly taken what could have been the duration of said movie. Stiles had watched on in amusement as this happened, offering up appropriate commentary that was lost on his friends but highly amusing to himself. 

Surprisingly they managed to con Derek into joining them rather than skulking in the back of the room in his chair. The Alpha still brought the book with him much to the pack's annoyance, Stiles found it hilarious that they thought he’d just sit and watch a movie. Derek didn’t really do things like that, preferring to be occupied with something. That was fine, Stiles took great pleasure in spreading himself out between Derek and Scott on the couch. Neither Alpha said a word about him claiming the better part of the couch for himself though Derek did take to stroking his head while he read. Stiles steadfastly refused to open his eyes and deal with the looks his friends were no doubt giving him after he started purring. At this point, embarrassment shouldn’t have been possible but somehow Stiles still managed to feel it. 

The Bastilli yawned, baring his great teeth and clearly displaying that he was ready for bed. The pack was in agreement after the long day they’d had, Stiles ignored the bickering of who would get what place to sleep given how he trotted up the stairs to Derek’s bedroom. It was a  nice perk to know that Derek was allowing him to crash in his bedroom despite always throwing the others out. Then again it might have something to do with them being mates...Or maybe because he was just a cat. Either way, it worked for him, jumping up onto the bed Stiles grumbled as he sought out a comfortable spot for himself ignoring Derek as the man got dressed for bed. 

When Derek climbed into the bed, throwing the blankets over his legs and settling down against his pillow his arm came up over the covers to rub Stiles's head. Stiles purred at the familiar action, his eyes peeling open a hair to stare back at the smirking Alpha.

‘You just like doing that because it amuses you, well the jokes on you bud, this feels great.’

The Alpha didn’t reply not that Stiles figured he would, the man’s hand trailed down from his head to lay beside the cat. The man’s gaze shifting towards the ceiling, mindful of the other prying ears in the loft who may or may not hear them Derek stated. “It was a good hike.”

Stiles purred willingly this time, wanting some way to assure the Alpha that he agreed with him. ‘Hell of a lot more fun than the hikes I did when I was human. Those sucked balls, today was just great.’

Derek smirked when he heard Stiles purr, he wasn’t touching the cat so he figured that Stiles was doing that on purpose. It was nice to know the teen agreed with him, not that he had much doubt given how the boy had been racing around outside. The woods appeared to have helped calm the teen down as he marveled in what his new form could do and Derek was glad that he’d coerced the teen out of the loft. Closing his eyes, Derek reached out and ruffled the cat’s fur once more before calling out. “Goodnight Stiles.”

The cat chirped back at him. ‘Goodnight Sourwolf.’

 

**********

 

Stiles was having the wildest dream or at least he was pretty sure it was a dream because if this was real then there had to be a carbon monoxide leak or something. Because he distinctly knew that he went to bed in Derek’s loft, in his bed more precisely and yet here he was standing in the open planes of a desert. Stiles took a breath, the air was hot and dry a shocking discrepancy compared to Beacon Hills. The scary thing was that he somehow knew this desert, knew the location at the very least despite never having been here before.

“Hello?” Stiles looked around but all he saw was the long planes of sand before him and upon twisting around found that behind him was an expanse of trees that lead into a deeper darker enclave of wilderness. Stiles wasn’t all that pleased with his options, not given how the sun was beating down on him and how ‘don’t go there’ the enclave looked. Sighing Stiles muttered to himself. “I’m gonna die...That’s what’s going to happen here and it’s gonna suck I just know it.” The teen jolted forward in fright when a loud roar sounded behind him, twisting sharply Stiles stared into the darkened cove of trees. He swallowed dryly when a pair of green eyes stared back at him, he knew those eyes. The green orbs were lowered to the ground, smaller than Stiles remembered his own. A kitten?

“Hey...Hey, little death cat.” Stiles’ eyes widened when the ‘little’ death cat became a ‘big’ death cat.  The eyes of the beast rose as it stood up, giving the teen the clear picture that it had been lying in wait for him. It stalked out of the underbrush of tree palms, baring its teeth at him, the quills along its sleek form shivering before coming erect. They didn’t stay that way long, the second that Stiles took a hasty step back they receded to their more docile state.

Stiles smiled warily. “Hey...So, like don’t mean to be encroaching on your territory or anything cause that’s not what I’m doing here. Totally not.” Stiles nodded even as he waved his hands at the cat as if to prove that he meant no harm. “Just a little lost in this scary-ass dream, so if you could like not kill me and then maybe give me directions towards the exit that would be nice.”

Stiles winced when the cat roared at him, its ears going flat before its jaw unhinged baring its teeth as the vibrations of its roar rattled the boy's bones. Stiles panted, out of breath despite not being the one to have released such a fierce sound. When he dared to open his eyes, Stiles found the cat was glaring at him, waiting.

“What?”

The cat snorted at him, Stiles glared back at the rude gesture. “Well, excuse me if I don’t speak death cat.” That wasn’t strictly true given that he had a Bastilli form as well-Oh. Licking his lips, Stiles asked. “Do you uh...Want me to try and change? Be like you.” He pointed at the cat, it snorted at him once more and twisted to prowl slowly into the trees giving him a perceptive look over its shoulders as it disappeared from view.

“Alrighty then, thanks for the instructions.” Stiles sassed with a grumble, slowly following after the beast.

Batting palm fronds out of his face, pushing long strands of grass away from himself as they brushed up against him. There were plenty of places for the cat to hide and Stiles really didn’t want to focus on how easy it would be to get ambushed by it. That would be a horrible way to go, didn’t they paralyze their prey before eating them? UGH, Stiles did not want to be eaten alive, that was just gross...And totally a shitty way to go. 

“Mr. Death cat? Here kitty kitty.” Stiles had to smirk at his lame attempts to draw the other Bastilli out of hiding, the teen wasn’t sure if it understood him per se but he thought it did. If so, it was a miracle that he hadn’t been mauled to death for being sassy with the beast. 

A deep rumble had him pulling up short, Stiles looked through the densely packed forest searching for those startling green eyes. He found no proof of the beast, though he continued to hear it.

“That’s just mean,” Stiles muttered to the animal. “If you’re going to eat me just do it, haven’t you heard playing with your food is bad?” Stiles was seconds away from giving another quip to the beast when he found himself thrown to the ground by the Bastilli as it jumped straight out from the ferns in front of him. 

The takedown was harsh, Stiles cried out in shock only to give a sharp grunt as the wind was knocked out of him upon meeting the hard-packed earth. Groaning Stiles winced, reaching for his chest where he was certain he’d broken something. A chittering had the teen cursing. “So not cool, bad kitty.” Rolling to his side as he cradled his chest, Stiles stilled. Warm breath ghosted his face, opening his eyes a hair found that he was face to face with the Bastilli. “N-Nice kitty.”

Stiles made a horrified noise when he was licked upside the head. “Ugh! That’s so gross.” He wiped at his face, refusing to acknowledge that he’d done the same thing to his friends. They deserved it, Stiles did not. “What is wrong with you devil cat?” He glared back at it as it sat primly in front of him. “What do you want?” Stiles scowled at it.

The beast shivered its quills once more before stalking forward to butt their heads together, the contact was sharp but the sting of their heads clacking together wasn’t what startled Stiles. It was what he got from it.

‘We’re here.’

Stile's mouth fell open. “Holy shit...You can talk.”

The cat tilted its head at him before coming forward to brush up against him once more. “We are one.”

“Okay, now you’re sounding like the borg and that is entirely unsettling,” Stiles stated with a laugh as the cat glared at him, it leaned forward sprawling out onto its belly and pushing its head into Stiles’ hand. “Oh, you wanna be petted?” Stiles smiled as he stroked the beasts head. “I know this feels good right? It’s criminal how good it feels.”

‘You’ve been lost to us, we to you.’

Stiles frowned, his hand stilling on the cats head. He looked down at it. “Wait...Are you me? Is this some kind of twilight zone mental maze thing?”

The cat’s sparkling green eyes looked up at him. ‘We are one.’

Stiles gave a nod. “Okay...Sure.”

‘Together now, no longer apart.’

The teen frowned, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Then again, the Bastilli hadn’t done anything to hurt him, well, other than pouncing on him for its own amusement. Still, that hadn’t really hurt and it hadn’t hurt him out in the real world either. It was just a cat, though he admitted that turning into a death cat had a certain level of threat to it. “You’re the cat thingy I was supposed to search for, aren’t you? The thing that Derek was telling me about wolves.”

‘We are whole.’

“Yeah got that bit.” Stiles rolled his eyes as he continued to stroke the cats head. “But what about the whole maintaining control or zen bullshit? How do I get human again?”

‘We are not human.’

Stiles sighed. “I know...I know that we’re a Bastilli now and all that jazz.” He waved his hand about. “But I have a human form, right?” There was trepidation there. Stiles was scared that he might be stuck in the Bastilli form for the rest of his life. 

‘We can mimic, we can be other self.’

Stiles smiled broadly, pointing at the cat. “Yes. Yes! Let’s do that!”

The cat snorted back at him ill enthused by the teen's boisterous nature, Stiles huffed. “Hey, I’ve been trapped as a cat long enough thank you very much, not that it isn’t cool cause it totally is...But I’d kinda like to hold a normal conversation with people.” Stiles reached up with his free hand to rub the back of his head. “I really need to talk to my dad...To Derek too.”

‘The wolf is ours.’

Stiles blinked a few times in surprise. “Wait, you know? Like, you can tell the whole mating thing?”

The cat nodded. ‘We are not a wolf, but we understand.’

“Cool cool.” Stiles nodded. “So like can we do the whole human thing then? Cause I’d really like to talk to Derek about that.”

‘We must rest now.’

“Huh?” Stiles watched as the cat laid its head down on its paws, closing its eyes as Stiles continued to pet it. Stiles frowned, blinking repeatedly as it sunk in. His eyelids were getting heavy, he was getting sleepy. “Not cool.” He yawned, leaning forward to wrap an arm around the warm cat. Stiles sighed into its fur, smiling tiredly when he heard it speak once more.

‘We are one.’

That sounded nice, really nice. Stiles fell into the warmth that radiated around him and the Bastilli. Sleep sounded good right now and he had a cuddly purring pillow to hold onto. Life couldn’t get better than that.

 

*********

 

Derek sighed as he came awake, shifting onto his side and curling into the warmth of the Bastilli that he’d come to expect over the last day or so. His arm came around to drape over the beasts back, half expecting Stiles to purr at him if he was of the mind to. The Alpha, however, was not prepared for his hand to not sink into fur but come across flesh. Derek’s eyes opened wide, he sat up in bed before looking away sharply when he recognized two things. Stiles was human again, and very very naked. 

Derek was used to nakedness, he grew up in a pack of wolves after all and clothing had a tendency to meet horrible ends but it was different somehow when it was Stiles. Carefully Derek threw the blankets on top of him over the boy himself. Once he had assured himself that Stiles was covered did Derek look back at the teen. Stiles was sprawled out on his stomach, an arm up above his head while the other was being used as a makeshift pillow. The teen looked like he was sleeping well, regardless of if that was true or not Derek was glad to have the teen back. He smirked as he watched the boy sleep, watched him breathe as his bare back rose and fell in even patterns. 

Derek knew that he needed to wake the teen, find him some clothes and...Talk. There was a lot to talk about, but that could wait at least until he was sure that Stiles was going to stay human. If stress could make a werewolf shift, Derek didn’t want to see if the same held true for a Bastilli. Derek wanted to keep Stiles human.

With a stilted movement, he laid his hand on the boy's shoulder and shook it gently pausing only a moment to feel the warmth of the boy's flesh. “Stiles.” He rasped, daring to wake the boy before he lost the courage to do so. He shook the boy again when he got no response, smirking when Stiles groaned, shifting in his sleep as his brow furrowed.

“Stiles.” The Alpha stayed knelt beside the teen, his hand laying flat on the boy's shoulder. “Stiles, wake up.”

The boy groaned as he shifted onto his side as if to turn and face whoever was bothering him to give them a piece of his mind. His face crinkled up even as he rasped. “M’sleepin.”

“I know.” Derek chuckled. “Time to get up.”

Stiles huffed, his hand coming down from above his head to push at the hand that was now on his arm trying to shake it. He batted at Derek all while refusing to open his eyes. “Knock it off dude.”

“Don’t call me dude.”

Stiles huffed, though it was in amusement as he stretched and groaned. “M’ you’re a mind reader now?” He opened his eyes and stared back at the Alpha.

Derek smirked as he got to reveal. “Not a mind reader Stiles, you’re human.”

Stiles blinked at him a few times, frowned and then looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was covered with Derek’s blankets and his body was very much human. Stiles sat up in a rush, his hands coming out in front of him. “Holy shit.” He turned them over back and forth just staring at his fingers, he looked up to Derek who was smirking at him. “I have opposable thumbs again.”

Derek laughed, of all the things for the boy to be happy about. “Yeah.”

“This is great!” Stiles let his hands fall into his blanket-covered lap. “You can understand me.”

“Just a little.” Derek sassed. “The growling might have been better.”

Stiles laughed punching Derek in the arm. “Liar, you missed me.”

Derek smiled but refused to comment on that, because he knew the boy was right. “I’ll get you some clothes.”

“Huh?” Stiles frowned, then looked down at himself when Derek waved at him. He blushed. “Oh god.” Stiles put a hand over his face as Derek laughed. 

Derek shook his head as he got up to sort through his clothing to find something that would work for him. “How’d you think I felt waking up?”

“Oh god kill me.” 

Derek smirked as he sorted through the clothes, it was mean but he loved hearing the boys embarrassment, especially so since he hadn’t seen anything, well, other than his ass. Finding a pair of sweats, some underwear, and a shirt Derek returned to the bed and tossed them onto the boy who was once more laying on the bed, this time on his back with his hands over his face. 

Shaking his head, Derek told him. “Get dressed, I’m sure the others will be happy that you have opposable thumbs too.”

The boy groaned, leaving him to it, Derek headed for the stairs pausing just long enough to glance back at the teen who was still hiding away from the world. He smiled before heading back downstairs. “I’d get dressed, once they know you’re normal Scott might come up here and he might get more of an eyeful than I did.”

“UGH!”

Chuckling Derek went down the stairs to see that the others had somehow managed to sleep through the debacle that had played out in his bedroom. Shaking his head, Derek walked past the sleeping pack members into the kitchen where he started the coffee pot. Leaning back against a set of cabinets, Derek looked out over the quiet loft and smiled. Things just felt better now, whether that was because Stiles was human or simply because he was relieved to know he could turn back he wasn’t sure. 

Derek had two cups of coffee made by the time that Stiles came hopping down the steps two at a time, Derek shook his head as he watched the teen come running across the small space ignoring the forms of his friends in favor of catching up to Derek and more importantly the coffee he offered. 

Derek held out a cup to the teen even as he struggled to maintain his composure, Stiles was wearing his clothing. The Alpha dared not to take a deeper breath while the boy was so close, he knew that Stiles would inadvertently smell like him and that was one thing Derek wasn’t sure he would be able to handle. Not after having already gotten the shock of waking up with the boy naked in his bed, there was only so much an Alpha could take. He smiled tightly when Stiles took the coffee from him, ignorant to the turmoil he was putting the Alpha through.

“Oh thank god.” Stiles took the cup only to glare at Derek when he said.

“Careful, might still taste horrible.”

“You’re an ass.” Stiles took a large sip only to make a face and put it down. “Gah.”

Derek blinked in surprise. “Does it?” He’d meant it as a joke.

Stiles shook his head as he coughed. “Hot.”

Derek sighed, glowering at the teen who was waving at his tongue. He took a smaller drink of his own coffee and watched amused as Stiles didn’t learn his lesson before taking another long swallow of the coffee. Leaning on the counter, Derek watched Stiles savor his first cup of coffee since his transformation.

Stiles eventually slowed down in his consumption of the caffeinated beverage, coming to stand opposite of Derek on the other side of the counter. He smirked down into the cup with the dark liquid. “I can’t begin to describe to you how horrible this tastes...When-” Stiles paused unsure how to go about talking about his other side so he settled for saying. “It tastes really really bad.”

“Yeah?”

Stiles nodded. “The worst.” He smirked before taking another drink of it.

“Looked like it did.”

Stiles swallowed, meeting the man’s gaze for the first time in a long time. “Things are different...Everything is really.” Stiles looked back to the couch and chair where his friends were sprawled out. Apparently, Erica and Boyd had won yet again as Scott and Isaac were sprawled out across the various furniture. “Isaac doesn’t taste like oranges, but he does smell like them.”

Derek snorted. “I’d be worried if he did.”

“Me too.” Stiles turned back around with a smirk. “Granted, when I licked him he didn’t taste bad and that’s highly disconcerting for me.”

Derek shook his head. “You’re not going to eat anyone.”

“I wasn’t so sure...That’s wh-”

“You ran.” Derek filled in, nodding. The Alpha was sure that there would be plenty of time if not many questions to answer for the time Stiles spent out on his own. “You know we don’t blame you,” Derek stated even as he avoided the boy's gaze, staring into his own cup of coffee.

“You should.”

Derek shook his head. “You were scared, everything was changing...It was hard enough for us, but we weren’t the ones living it.”

Stiles sighed, staring back at the Alpha who was steadfastly avoiding him now that they were talking about some of the deeper stuff. “I know you couldn’t understand me...But yesterday, that little zen walk...I think that’s what did it.”

Derek frowned, looking back at the teen. “What?”

“I had the weirdest dream, Derek, like twilight zone.” He shook his head as he smirked. “The Bastilli was there, like literally in front of me like you are now." He gestured his hand between them as if the man couldn't comprehend what he was saying. "It talked and I’ll be the first to say that hearing voices isn’t good but this was just...Different.”

Derek snorted. “You’re not hearing voices Stiles, that was just-”

“The other part of me,” Stiles smirked knowingly. “Yeah, I figured it out...After it plowed me to the ground.” Derek raised a brow, Stiles shrugged. “Seems its got my sense of humor.”

“Figures.”

“Hey!” Stiles glared.

Derek smirked as he took up his coffee cup for another sip, Stiles continued to glare at him. Derek didn’t have the heart to point out that his eyes had flared green, he didn’t want to freak him out. “What else happened?” He asked once he’d set his cup aside.

Stiles shrugged. “Not much, it just said that we’d found each other. Like we were lost or something, it was kinda freaky to be talking to it. I didn’t think that I’d wake up like this that’s for sure.” Stiles waved at himself before blushing. “Or...In your bed, sorry about that.”

Derek snorted at the boy's embarrassment, he shook his head and did his best to move past that so as not to reveal how embarrassed he was about it too. “It’s fine. You had to change sometime.”

“I wasn’t sure it was ever going to happen,” Stiles replied honestly. “And I really didn’t want to spend the rest of my days as a cat. There’s only so much shit I can do to Scott like that.”

Derek chuckled as if that was the high point of him being a supernatural cat was messing with his friend. Stiles smiled as he cradled his coffee cup, the warmth filtering through his hands. “ I need to call my dad.”

Derek paused, of course, Stiles would want to do that, but it was pretty fast in Derek's opinion to be worrying about that. “After breakfast.” He tried to stall the teen.

Stiles nodded, he wasn’t going to argue just because he knew he needed to call him didn’t mean he was particularly looking forward to that conversation. “He’ll probably want to come here.”

“That’s fine...But you know that you can’t be alone.” Stiles grimaced. “It’s not safe, not until we’re sure that you have an anchor, Stiles.”

Stiles nodded even as he muttered. “We’re not even sure if Bastilli have anchors.” Looking up he muttered. “I’m the first right?”

Derek sighed, he was and there was sure to be a ton of guesswork in anything when it came to Stiles' new form but it was far better not to tempt fate than just assume that Bastilli didn't need them. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Or I’ll eat someone.” Stiles rolled his eyes.

Derek glared. “You’re not going to eat anyone.”

Stiles looked down to his cup, refusing to talk about how that was a distinct possibility if he was to lose it. Stiles didn’t feel like he’d lose it, but then again Scott hadn’t ever had much warning either. Sighing the teen replied. “My dad won’t get that...So ya know heads up.”

Derek snorted. “I figured as much.”

“Good.” Stiles nodded. 

“Stiles?”

The teen twisted about to see Isaac rubbing at his eyes as he stood up from the chair he’d been awkwardly folded into.

Stiles smiled and seeing the boy's tired confused stare uttered. “You’re not hallucinating.” Derek snorted from behind him, but that didn’t stop Stiles from continuing. “Unless there’s been some kind of gas leak then I’m pretty sure we’re all hallucinating.”

Isaac smiled when his hand fell away from his tired eyes, hearing his friends sass he laughed and ran forward. “You’re normal!”

Stiles laughed, nodding only to twist and glare when Derek muttered. “That’s debatable.”

“Shut it Sourwolf.” Stiles twisted back to Isaac and laughed as he was hugged.

“Dude we missed you.”

“Eh, I was here just in a more furry variety.”

Isaac pulled back only to chuckle. “A little bit different.” Glancing back towards the couch where Scott was asleep, Isaac gave Stiles a questioning look wanting to know what he wanted to do about that.

“Oh, I have a plan,” Stiles assured him as he left his coffee behind and wandered around the furniture towards his friend who was blissfully unaware. Stiles sat on the edge of the coffee table, waving a hand at Derek when he started to complain.

“Shut it, I’m busy.”

Isaac snickered when Derek glowered at Stiles, leaning back to tell the Alpha. “This will be worth it.”

“It’s not your coffee table.”

Isaac rolled his eyes and without any further scrutiny called the man out. “We’ve replaced that thing five times, you’re not attached to it.” The blonde smirked as he watched Stiles lean forward to whisper to Scott.

“Scotty.” Stiles was smiling it was so damn hard not to just laugh at all of this. Hell, Isaac was more aware than Scott was and it wasn’t as if he and Derek had been trying to be quiet. “Scotty, come on...Haven’t you missed me?” Stiles pouted before reaching forward only to pause. He smirked when his initial idea changed, he rose from the coffee table in an instant and went back to the kitchen, ignoring how Isaac and Derek followed him. When he had a small glass of water in hand and was on his way back Stiles assured Derek. “He’ll clean it up.”

Derek snorted. “Of course he will.” The Alpha rolled his eyes as Stiles foisted the responsibility of cleaning up what was sure to be a water spill on his sleeping friend. 

Stiles came back around and called out one last time. “Scotty you better wake up now or I’m gonna channel my inner cat and drop this water glass off the metaphorical table.”

Isaac snickered as he listened to Stiles’ warning. Derek shook his head at the teen's actions.

Scott did not wake up. 

He did when the water was dumped on him. A loud scream leaving the Alpha when the ice-cold water fell on his head. He spat as he sat upright, coughing and wiping at his hair which was plastered to his forehead. “What the hell?!”

Stiles knelt down to be more at his height. “Morning sunshine.”

Scott twisted sharply, saw Stiles, saw Stiles was human and ignored his current wet state. “STILES!”

Stiles grunted when he was taken down by Scott's exuberant reunion, the Alpha falling off of the couch to hug him. They fell backward sending the coffee table skidding behind them as they crashed to the floor in a pile.

“UGH.” Stiles got the wind knocked out of him as Scott fell on top of him.

Isaac laughed loudly. “Well, that backfired.”

Derek nodded along as he watched Scott and Stiles struggle to separate themselves. Stiles making a ruckus as he told Scott off for his joyous reunion hug.

“Dude, what the hell? You trying to kill me? I’m a cat I have nine lives now.” Stiles wiped at himself from the water that Scott had managed to transfer to him when he’d hugged him. Scott laughed as he wiped his bangs back from his head, water still trailing down from his hair. “I don’t think that counts for a Bastilli, but dude! You’re human.”

Stiles laughed as he was once more wrapped up in a hug, Stiles patted Scott’s back. “I noticed.”

Scott pulled back and smiled. “When?”

“Overnight apparently, woke up normal.” Stiles shrugged.

“Huh...Weird.”

“You’re telling me.” Then because he needed to, Stiles added. “And I’m a cat, all cat’s have nine lives that’s just a fact.”

Scott laughed. “Whatever you say man.”

Stiles huffed when Scott refused to be on his side when it was very clear that cat's, all cat's had nine lives. Glancing over to Isaac the teen asked for backup. “I’m right, right?”

Isaac snickered. “Pretty sure it applies to any cat.”

“Thank you!” Stiles waved a hand towards Isaac before looking at Scott. “See? If that doesn’t apply to an Egyptian death cat then I don’t know what does.”

Scott wasn’t the only one to snort at the boy's attempts to ‘qualify’ his supernatural form for such a thing. Stiles chose to ignore them since technically he’d won the argument. Scott patted him on the shoulder. “Nine lives or not, I’m glad that you’re not a death cat at the moment.”

Stiles smirked. “Ditto.”

They all turned when a shocked exclamation of. “You’re human!” Came from Erica before she ran forward and attacked Stiles, they barely stayed on their feet as Stiles stumbled wrapping his arms around the girl. Stiles gave a wave to Boyd from behind Erica’s back when the other teen smirked and waved at him. Erica had yet to let him go.

“Hi, Erica.” Stiles laughed when she kissed his cheek before pulling away. 

“Oh, don’t you ever do that again.” She scowled at him.

“Do what?” Stiles frowned. “Turn into a death cat cause that wasn’t really my fault when you get right down to it.”

Erica pursed her lips, smacked him upside the head getting a small ‘ow’. before stating. “Stop being stubborn.”

“Oh, well when you put it like that,” Stiles muttered before ducking before she could smack him again. Stiles put Scott between them, shoving his friend forward. “You’re an Alpha, sick her.”

Scott snorted. “Have at him, Erica.”

“Scott! Betrayal!”

Scott smirked right before he took a sharp step away from Stiles and waved a hand to Erica towards Stiles. "See how many lives you have after her," Erica smirked.

“I hate you all.” Stiles dodged Erica when she came to torment him again, running back towards the kitchen and swung an arm around Isaac. The boy laughed as he put his hands up to keep Erica back. 

“Careful...I’m holding back a death cat.” The blonde winced when he was smacked for his sass.

“Asshole,” Stiles grumbled.

Isaac snickered as he turned about. “You were giving Erica free reign to hurt me.”

Stiles huffed, throwing his arms up in the air. “You’re supposed to protect me obviously.”

“Why?” Erica droned. “Because you’re scared?” She taunted with a smirk.

Stiles pointed a finger. “No, because Stiles doesn’t want to get smacked upside the head when he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Well, Stiles.” And she made sure to emphasize ‘stiles.’ “Scared us half to death so Stiles can deal with it.”

The teen frowned. “That sounds so wrong.” He nudged Isaac. “That sounds wrong right?”

“Yeah.” Isaac nodded.

Derek sighed, it was amusing to watch the pack interact with one another again, more in the way that he was used to then the stressed-out interactions that had taken place as of late. The humor was different now that things were falling into place. “Enough. Let’s get some breakfast, you can torment him later.”

“That's mean and I'd comment religiously on the cruelness of that but...I'm not going to because food.” Then because he had to. “With forks.”

The pack laughed, Derek smirked at the teen. “We could do cereal.”

“I hate you.” Stiles glared as he rounded and shoved the Alpha out of the way so he could peer into the fridge first. Derek snorted as he held the door open.

“I call eggs,” Isaac shouted from farther back in the kitchen.

Stiles huffed looking up at Derek from where he was hunched over in the fridge. “He always does that.” Derek hummed. “You’re not going to say no are you?” Stiles muttered. Derek made another noise that clearly said that he wasn’t.

“Jerk.”

Derek smirked as he held out the carton of eggs to Stiles, the teen rolled his eyes and shouted back to Isaac. “We are not doing over easy, that’s just gross. and I have not become human again only to ingest that crap.” The teen started arguing over the best form of egg and how they were totally doing scrambled because he said so. Derek looked up when Scott came to stand on the other side of the door, he reached in for the carton of orange juice.

“I never thought chaos would sound so good.”

Derek huffed in amusement. “I’ll remind you later that you said that.”

“Go for it.” Scott smiled as he wandered off, carton in hand.

Shaking his head at the other Alpha’s disregard to his threat, Derek took a deep breath and followed after Scott, he relished the chaos.

 


	31. Gotta call dad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles has a harrowing conversation with his father, and Derek supports him throughout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, let me start off by saying thank you to all of you who have been leaving such wonderful comments, I really enjoy hearing from you all. 
> 
> Secondly, updates have and might slow down, I hate it but it's a fact of life that although I have the story entirely plotted out-I just need to write the damn chapters-I'm entering a yearly phase of my mental health condition that might delay my ability to write things. I fully intend to do my best at giving you all two chapters a month as I've been doing the last few weeks, but please know that there might be times where I simply can't commit to such a thing. It's been two weeks since I last wrote anything, and this frustrates me to no end but it's a part of my health issues. Don't worry though, I will never abandon a fic, this will be completed and at the very least you can be assured a chapter a month though I truly want to get this fic finished up.

For once Stiles wasn’t embarrassed to be eating in front of his friends, having hands and more importantly silverware was amazing. They still sent him knowing looks, but he flipped them off every time. Hell if he was going to let them ruin this for him, breakfast was glorious the others might have disregarded it but Stiles didn’t take it for granted after his time trapped as a Bastilli. 

When the leftover food was put away and the dishes were done, the pack fell silent. Everyone kept looking towards Stiles as if he was some figment of their imagination, that’s probably why the teen felt the need to mutter.

“I’m not a ghost you know?” They snorted back at him. “You’re staring and it’s entirely unsettling, knock it off.”

“Dude you have to admit, it’s a relief to see you human again.” Scott brokered with a smile.

“I get that, trust me I’m happier than you are about that but it’s freaking me out that you keep looking at me like I’m some kind of leprechaun or something. I know I'm awesome, but give a guy a break.”

Erica rolled her eyes. “Awesome. Yeah, getting trapped as a cat is awesome.”

Stiles pointed sharply at the teen. “That was not, I agree, but turning into a death cat is kinda amusing.”

They stared back at him and his contradictory statement, nobody called him on it though as the boy reclined on the sofa with a smile. 

“So what now?” Isaac spoke up when the room once more fell into silence. 

Stiles sighed, there was something he knew he had to do, didn't mean he was looking forward to it. “Gotta call my dad.” He winced as if that physically hurt him.

“Sure that’s a good idea? You just got back to normal.” Erica cautioned, Isaac and Boyd nodded agreeing with her.

Scott shook his head, backing his friend up. “His dad’s gotta be freaking out...I mean more than he was before.” He gave his friend a pained expression.

Stiles sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah...Not gonna be a fun conversation.” Tilting his head back over the couch because he knew where Derek was, he muttered. “Phone?”

Derek looked up, gave him a ‘what?’ expression and stated. “Scott is literally sitting right next to you.”

Stiles huffed he wasn't even sure why he'd done that, Derek was right Scott was right next to him so why bother asking Derek for a phone? Twisting about he took his friend's phone when the teen offered it to him with a smile. “Shut up.” The teen rose from the couch and went for the door.

“Where are you going?”

Stiles twisted sharply about, walking backward as he pointed back at Isaac. “Away from you nosy bastards, this is going to be awkward enough.”

“Stay in the driveway.” Derek monotoned.

“Yes dear.” Stiles shut the door behind him, smirking when he heard the pack laughing. Derek wasn’t going to soon forget that, but Stiles shrugged part of the fun was yanking the man’s chain. Walking a ways off to ensure that no one would be able to listen in on this conversation Stiles stared at the phone. Such an innocuous object but staring at it in his hand it felt more akin to a gun than a phone. Sighing, he typed in the well-known number and put it to his ear. It rang a few times before his dad picked up.

“Hello? Scott, what’s going on?”

Stiles winced upon hearing the trepidation in his father's voice as if he was prepared for bad news, that was totally on him, Stiles muttered. “I have opposable thumbs again and you do not know how much of a relief that is.”

There was a brief silence that was making Stiles bite his lip, concerned when his dad didn’t immediately react as the pack had.

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

The line went dead. Stiles blinked pulled the phone away from his ear to stare at it as if to ask it ‘did that really happen’. The phone didn’t answer him, of course, but Stiles let out a long breath. “Yay...Dad’s coming over.” Huffing out a resigned sigh, Stiles walked back up the driveway to the door, muttering to himself. “Shoulda stayed a cat.” Opening and shutting it he walked over disregarding the confused looks the pack was giving him at the short conversation he’d just had. Stiles flopped face down onto the couch.

Scott looked from Stiles who was taking up 3/4 of the couch with him and then to the others, cautious Scott asked. “How’d it go?”

Stiles threw his phone at him, Scott caught it. “Oh...Good, that’s uh...Good.”

Sighing at Scott's lame response to Stiles' reaction Erica muttered. “What’d he say?”

Stiles twisted his head out of the cushion to reply in a dry tone. “Five words and then he hung up on me.”

The pack tensed.

“What five words?” Isaac dreaded the answer.

“I’ll be there in fifteen.” Stiles buried his face once more, saying something into the cushion that was lost to them.

Scott nodded along as if he could understand him. “So, I mean that’s good, right? You two can talk.” He didn’t get a reply. Looking over the back of the couch, Scott frowned as Derek informed them.

“Go into town, I’ll call you when they’re done.”

“Wait, you’re kicking us out?” Erica scowled at once, like hell they were going to just leave Stiles alone.

Derek stared back at her blankly. “Yes, I am.” His voice held an edge to it as he spoke in a clipped manner. 

She huffed at the inherent threat in the older man's voice. “Why can’t we stay? It’s not like we’d get in the way or anything.” Isaac nodded, though Boyd remained neutral in the discussion.

“Scott,” Derek warned the other Alpha, he was losing his patience.

Sighing, the teen patted his friends back. “We’ll be back later dude, good luck with your dad.”

The boy groaned, taking it for what it was Scott nodded to the others. “Come on, we can go get some stuff for later.”

“He’s kicking us out.” Erica seethed with an angry wave towards Derek.

Scott shrugged, easily replying. “It’s his place.” He turned to look back at Derek. “Just call or text me...You’re going to stay close right?” He tilted his head towards Stiles.

The other Alpha nodded. “Okay, see you later Stiles.” The boy groaned again, nodding Scott ushered the Beta’s out of the loft arguing with Erica the entire way. No sooner than had the front door shut than did Stiles cant his head to the so he could talk once more. “He has a gun you know.”

“I really don’t think he’s going to shoot you, Stiles.” Derek droned with a roll of his eyes.

Stiles gave a huff of laughter as he turned over to stare up at the Alpha who had come to be leaning over the back of the couch. “No, I was referring to him shooting you for getting in the way of what he is sure to think of as a one on one conversation.”

Derek scowled.

Stiles shrugged. “Just fair warning.” Then he draped his arm over his eyes to shield out the world. “I really really hope I don’t turn into a fucking cat cause of this...That’s what happened to Scott when he lost it...Well, he didn't turn into a cat or a wolf for that matter but you know what I mean.”

Derek sighed, he knew very well what happened to shifters when they lost control of their emotions or were stressed. “Just try to keep calm, you know your dad isn’t going to react badly.”

“He did before.” The teen muttered shrewdly.

Okay, Stiles had him there. “He was shocked then, he hadn’t seen what you looked like. He’s more prepared this time.” The huff he got in return had Derek scowling at the boy who was ignorant of the look he was receiving. 

“He’s not going to like you being here.”

“Well, he doesn’t have much of a choice.” Derek countered. “Unless you’re stupid enough to try and get me to leave.”

Stiles snorted. “No.” He dropped his arm from over his head staring up at Derek. “I’m not stupid, I saw how Scott reacted to things...Besides my dad doesn’t have a fire extinguisher.” He got an odd look from Derek which prompted him to add for his benefit. “Wouldn’t be safe.”

Derek nodded, he might not have understood whatever it was that had included a fire extinguisher but he was relieved to know that Stiles understood. “Good.”

“This sucks.” Stiles intoned not a moment later, his brow crinkling as he thought on all the changes that had gone on. He was relieved to be human once more but now he had to truly face everything that had been going on. Stiles was not looking forward to those conversations, turning into a death cat again sounded kinda nice at this point and if he honestly thought he’d be able to change back he might be tempted to do it. It was because of this thought that Stiles met Derek’s gaze and muttered. “I’m going to have to try and change back aren’t I?”

Derek frowned. “Why?”

“To see if I get stuck again.”

Derek nodded his head a few times, they would need to test that. “Not right now.”

Stiles snorted. “No shit dude, I am not chancing that minutes before my dad gets here...He’d think I did it on purpose.”

“Don’t call me dude.” Derek reminded the teen. “He would, but only because that’s something that you’d do.”

Stiles glared. “Asshole.”

Derek smirked down at the teen, non-repulsed by being cursed at. The silence that fell over them afterward wasn’t stifling far from it in fact. It was just calm, the two of them in a quiet space with no real need to talk to one another. Stiles hadn’t even been one for silence, hated it with a fiery passion and more often then not he was what disturbed it. Now, he was different, the silence was nice even if he realized it wasn’t completely silent. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

Derek glanced back down at him. “I can hear yours.” He replied passively.

Stiles huffed when the Alpha didn't understand. “I couldn’t before.”

Right. Stiles was new to this. “Is it odd to you?”

“Freaky but not bad really...I’ve heard this before.” Stiles frowned a moment, trying to figure it out.

“My heart?” Derek rolled his eyes. “I’ve been in the lof-”

“No.” Stiles butt in sharply as he continued to wrack his brain around the notion of having heard it before, then it struck him. Snapping his fingers he explained. “Oh...Deaton.” Derek scowled, a little rumbling growl forming in his chest. Stiles pointed. “Zip it Sourwolf, I get to chew on him first...His stupid zen shit where he told me to focus was bullshit and you know it.”

Derek nodded curtly even if the idea of Stiles chewing on the man had a certain level of pleasure sparking up his spine. The stupid Druid deserved it that was for sure.

“I heard a heartbeat that’s what I was focusing on, it was yours.” Stiles relayed with no shortage of awe.

Derek wasn’t quite sure what to do with that information, on the one hand, it wasn’t all that surprising. Mates were in tune with one another, but on the other hand, it was startling to know that Stiles had singlehandedly picked him out of the entire pack without even knowing it. 

Before they could even begin to get into a conversation about that sensitive matter, their heads canted to the side at the sound of tires on gravel. A car was coming up the drive.

“Oh goodie, dad’s here.” Stiles huffed as he threw his arm over his face.

Snorting at the boy's dramatics, Derek walked around the couch and made his way to the door to let the sheriff in. “Don’t worry I’ll protect you.”

“Asshole!”

Derek smirked as he opened the door, giving a nod to the sheriff as he stepped back to let the man enter. Shutting the door softly behind him Derek followed the sheriff until they stood in the open expanse of the lofts living space. The man was just standing there staring at Stiles, Derek frowned as he glanced back and forth between the two of them. Shaking his head, the Alpha walked around and on his way past the couch muttered too low for the sheriff to hear. “Stop being dramatic.”

Stiles sprang forward, startling his father without knowing it. He turned to glower after the Alpha as he got to his feet, pointing sharply at the man “You stop being dramatic!” Derek shot him an amused look as he took his seat, pulling up the book that he was nearly finished with. “Don’t give me that look, Hale.” Stiles scowled.

“Stiles.”

The teen winced, glaring all the harder when Derek smirked at him. The boy huffed twisting about to stare at his father who was standing oddly at the entrance to the room. Taking a deep breath, Stiles smiled wanly as he got to his feet to be on even ground with his father. “Hey, dad...So long time no see, or...I guess hear? I mean I can make noises and I’m saying words but you don’t really get that ya know? Lost in tran-” Stiles swallowed hard when he has suddenly wrapped in his father's arms as the man had come forward only to embrace him, the man holding him tight. “Oh.”

Derek smirked as he flipped the page of his book.

“God, I thought I’d lost you.”

“Umm...No? I mean I was upstairs hiding in Derek’s closet and that’s really odd to say out loud now that I’m hearing it.”

Noah chuckled as he pulled back to look at his son, he was still the same spastic teen he’d raised spouting off things that could be misconstrued. “Yeah...I saw.” His voice tightened a hair when he spoke of that time. “Y-You were a sight.”

Stiles bit the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, pretty impressive right? I mean with the whole teeth, claws and then porcupine hair thing.”

Noah smiled wanly. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“You’re telling me.” The teen gave a depreciative laugh, his throat felt tighter the longer that they ghosted this whole thing. Avoided the real issue at hand, how his dad was going to cope with his son being a supernatural creature. One as deadly and imposing as a Bastilli.

“We-Uh should talk, right? Do the whole talking thing...Awkward conversations are our jam so this shouldn’t be all that new.” He chuckled.

Noah nodded, yeah, they needed to talk. There was a lot to talk about, he just wasn’t quite sure how to go about doing that. “Come on, we can go-” Noah paused when his son took a step back and shook his head. “Stiles?” He frowned.

“I-I uh can’t really do that? I mean it’s not a good idea for us to be amano eh amono right now, not until we’re sure that I won’t turn back into the death cat.” Stiles swallowed jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards Derek. “It’s why he’s here...Just to be sure, think of him as a supernatural bodyguard.” Stiles joked, the glare he felt being leveraged at the back of his head was worth it.

Noah followed his son's gesture catching sight of Derek just a few feet off in a chair once more reading. “I-I don’t follow, you’re human.”

“Right now.” Stiles rasped. “It’s just like Scott or the others, if-If I get too stressed or I don’t know emotional I could change without meaning to...This is all new and we don’t even know if Bastilli’s have anchors.”

Noah nodded slowly, disheartened to know that they couldn’t have privacy, that his son was fearful of changing back into the cat form that had scared him so much. Not only because of how intimidating it was but because putting that creature in conjunction with his son just didn’t fit. “R-Right.”

Stiles rubbed the back of his head before taking a seat once more on the couch, prepared to sort through the awkwardness all while having an audience. Not that he expected Derek to say anything, but it was still odd to know he was back there listening in on what was sure to be a horrible discussion with his dad.

Taking a seat in one of the chairs so as to be close to his son without encroaching on his space Noah waited. The pair stared at each other, neither wanting to broach the sensitive topic first. Clearing his throat, Noah knew that it was up to him as Stiles father to set the tone when the teen chose to avoid everything. “Stiles...What happened, with you running off like that.” He shook his head. “I was terrified kid, no one knew where you were or what you were doing.”

Stiles bobbed his head. “Yeah...Thought I had killed that hiker.” It hurt a bit to know that even his own father had doubts on whether or not he'd kill someone though he supposed that was part of the point of having Derek there.

Noah tensed, he didn’t really want to talk about the fact that he had some doubts at the time, he felt horrible now for them. “It’s not just that Stiles, you were just so different like that.”

“I was a giant death cat dad,” Stiles muttered sourly.

Noah scowled. “It was more than just that Stiles.” The man chastised the teen. “You were so distant with everyone, hostile-”

“I had...The Bastilli confused me alright? I had these stupid images in my head that weren’t real or at the very least were out of context.” Stiles explained. “That’s why I did what I did.”

Noah nodded he didn’t quite follow all of that, but he did prompt his son to find out if that might have changed. “And now?”

“Now, I don’t know,” Stiles admitted mildly with a shrug, it wasn’t as if he’d had a lot of intellectual conversations with his inner beast. Stiles wasn’t even sure if it would continue to give him flashes of time when he was changed, the teen hoped not, he rather preferred being the one in charge.

“What’s going to happen now? Now that you can...Do that.”

Stiles sighed, reaching up to rub the back of his head as he leaned into the couch. “Don’t know pops. I mean, I can turn into a death cat...Still don’t know if I have control over the whole going back and forth thing...Gotta test that out.” He admitted freely. “There’s just...No one knows what to expect, I’m not like the rest of them dad. This is all new.”

Noah gave a nod, he knew this of course, but it was just so much harder to hear it from his son and know that yes, it was real. “When are you coming home? Toda-”

“He can’t.”

Stiles flinched when Derek spoke up from behind him, yay the Alpha was participating. Stiles glanced over the back of the couch, the man wasn’t even looking up from his book so he couldn’t receive the warning glare that Stiles was shooting him.

“What do you mean he can’t.” Noah rounded on the man.

“It’s no different then his losing it cause of stress while here.” Derek calmly retorted as he looked up to meet the man’s haughty gaze. “He could lose control and then he’d be stuck at your house in town where someone might see him.”

Noah looked to Stiles as if asking the boy to say something to the contrary, Stiles just sighed at him and looked away. “But you’re human now...And I thought it was just stress that could make you do that. We’ll be fine-”

Stiles shook his head as his dad struggled to understand that this wasn’t such a simple thing, he couldn’t go home now that he was ‘human.’. “Dad...Listen, look I want to come home alright? I do.” Stiles nodded to reassure the man who he knew to be having second thoughts on everything right now. “But Derek’s right, I can’t right now. It’s too much of a risk, for me and for you. I don’t know if I change from stress if I’ll be like Scott and the others and be a loose cannon. You can’t take me if that happened, I’d just end up hurting you or worse.” Stiles's voice weakened towards the end. “At least here the pack can contain me until I get my shit sorted out.” Giving his dad what he hoped was a reassuring smile, he added. “Derek will look after me, keep me out of trouble. Right Sourwolf?”

Derek huffed at the nickname but nodded to the sheriff. “He’ll be safe here.”

Noah didn’t like this, didn’t like the fact that he’d be walking out that door without his son once more. “How long?”

“What?”

“How long do you have to stay here?” Stiles bit his lip, shrugged.  “You don’t know?”

“This isn’t science dad.” Stiles groused somewhat annoyed at his father for not taking him at his word. “It took Scott a while to figure stuff out and we don’t know how I’ll react to things. Might be faster or it might be slower, when I’m ready to come home I’ll come home.” Stiles reassured the man to the best of his ability despite there being a bit of bite to his words. “Derek will get tired of me sooner or later.” He joked to try and lighten the mood.

Derek rolled his eyes at the teen's attempts to make his father feel better, he wouldn’t throw the teen out. Not now and not ever, they had a lot that they needed to talk about just between the two of them. But Derek wanted to make sure that Stiles was alright after talking to his father before treading on that unstable ground. 

“I don’t like this.”

Stiles huffed. “Get in line dad.”

Noah scowled at his son, he didn’t appreciate the boy's sass.

Stiles threw up his arms. “What do you want me to say, dad? That I magically have all this sorted out? I just got back to normal this morning and I’m scared that if I turn back into the death cat I might get stuck again! I don’t know how any of this works and being misinformed is not my thing, you know that. I want all the knowledge, all the happy fancy words to figure stuff out but there aren’t any here. Not for this.” Stiles was getting keyed up and he knew this, but he was frustrated and the inherent threat of turning into a Bastilli was ever-present in the back of his mind.

Noah sighed, he supposed it was unfair of him to demand that his son be prepared to go home on the same day that he managed to turn back into a human. It was just that he missed the kid and he wanted him back where he could keep an eye on him. The fact that Stiles could turn into that creature again was the farthest thing from his mind as if he could just block it out, forget about it. “I want you to come home.”

“I can’t.” Stiles shook his head. 

“Scott lived at home while he dealt with all of this.”

Stiles laughed startling his father and himself. “Trust me, you do not know the half of it. All the crap we got into while we were sorting that stuff out, no. Not doing that, frankly I’m surprised Melissa hasn’t had a heart attack by now and she has a better heart than you so no.”

Noah gave a disgruntled noise but was waylaid from commenting on that by Derek’s arrival. The Alpha had come to lean over the back of the couch, a firm expression on his face as he set a hand on Stiles’ shoulder. The teen sagged a bit into his touch for some reason that eluded Noah.

“He can’t go with you, it’s not safe.” Derek maintained eye contact with the man the entire time as he held onto Stiles as if to ground the teen. Derek wasn’t sure it was working for Stiles, but it was working for himself. He would have hated to get into an argument with Stiles if the boy decided to cave to his father's wishes or worse allow the stress to take hold. He'd chosen to intervene when he'd sensed the boy was at his limit, being able to waylay the sheriff's demands for Stiles to return home was just a bonus. Still, he feared that the teen might go along with the man giving into his father's wishes. Thankfully, Stiles was refusing to go along with it. 

Noah gave the other man a stern expression before looking back at Stiles, his son was leaning back into the man’s touch, back further into the couch and refused to meet his gaze. He was making this worse for him, forcing Stiles into some corner where he had to choose between him and the pack. Noah knew that Derek only meant to help but it rankled him to know that he couldn’t be a part of that, that he was only human and thus he couldn’t connect to his own son. “Fine.” His voice was a tad sharper than even he’d expected and he felt bad when he saw his son flinch at it. However, Noah didn’t apologize as he stared back at Derek with the authority that he had both as the town's sheriff and as Stiles father. “I’m not going to stay away.”

Derek frowned, confused by what the man meant by that. He looked down when Stiles groaned.  “Come on dad this isn’t some custody agreement, they’re not keeping me from you. You can come to visit or whatever.” Stiles waved his hand in the air.

Derek nodded to back up the teen. “Give us  a little warning, if he’s having a bad day-”

“All my days have been bad, I’ve been stuck as a cat.”

Derek rolled his eyes ignoring the teen's input. “Just give us warning before coming over.”

Noah took a sharper breath, but nodded, that at least he could do. He stood at once, startling the pair of them. “I need to get back to the station.”

“You left work?!” Stiles sat forward. “Da-”

“You don’t get to gripe at me for that.” Noah pointed sharply. “I’ve been waiting for days to get to talk to you.”

Stiles sunk back into the couch, sulking. “It’s not like I was avoiding you.”

Noah shook his head. “We’ll talk more about this later...Just try to sort this all out so you can come home.” He gave Derek a steely look before turning to leave.

Stiles sighed, huffing when he saw Derek give chase. Stiles let himself fall over sideways into the couch only to grit his teeth. This was stupid, both the arguing and the sudden clarity that he didn’t want to mope on the couch where anyone could see him. 

Stiles knew the pack would be coming back the moment that Derek called them and it was with that notion in mind that Stiles climbed from the couch and made the slow trek up the stairs to Derek’s bedroom. The Alpha could deal with it, Stiles didn’t care if he bitched and moaned about Stiles invading his bed once more. As he flopped face-first back into the covers Inhaling deeply, Stiles flinched as his olfactory senses drew in the scent of himself and Derek. The Alpha’s scent was different than the others he’d picked up from the rest of the pack, or his father. It made him shiver, stupid death cat instincts, Stiles reasoned before burying his head underneath a pillow. 

 

*********

 

“Sheriff.”

Noah twisted about, frowning when Derek came to a halt just a few feet off from him. “Derek.”

“You can’t pressure him.” Derek cut in before the man could even hope of giving a rebuttal. “This was what we were talking about, he could have lost control from that conversation and if he did that we don’t know if he’d be in control.”

“He’s not an animal.” Noah seethed.

Derek shook his head. “More than you’d like to accept, he has instincts that you can’t comprehend, the same as me and the rest of the pack.”

“I can understand my son just fine.”

Derek glowered back at the man who was taking offense to everything he was trying to tell him. “Understanding Stiles and understanding the Bastilli are two different things, sheriff.”

The man shook his head as he opened the door to his cruiser. “I don’t see my son as two entities, Derek, I just see Stiles.”

The Alpha shrugged as he crossed his arms over his shoulder. “Well, Stiles can turn into a Bastilli and that Bastilli won’t care if you’re his father if you upset it.” Derek held his ground with the man. “You want Stiles to come home, then you can’t rush this, we’re working through things as they happen. Stressing Stiles out by demanding things of him he can’t give you won’t make this any easier on him.”

“None of this is easy,” Noah muttered as he leaned against the open door. “Nothing’s been easy since this whole damn thing started. My son can turn into a cat Derek, that is not normal and all I want is for him to come home-”

“And be normal.” Derek cut in a cynical tone. “But he’s, not anymore. You can’t make him be human sheriff, can’t make him lock away this other part of him. Whether or not you're prepared for this Stiles is what he is, there’s no going back just like there was no going back for Scott. This is permanent and like Stiles, you have to accept it...Or don’t.” The Alpha shrugged carelessly, he couldn’t make the man accept what had happened with his son, but he wasn’t about to let him stress Stiles out by making unreasonable demands of him. “Stiles will be here when you’re ready to deal with that.” He turned and headed back to the loft, never once looking over his back to the stunned man he left behind. 

Noah watched the man leave him in the driveway, leaning against his cruiser Noah swallowed tightly. He did want Stiles to be normal, to just be his goofy kid again...But there was no going back. Gritting his teeth, Noah climbed into his car and headed back to work. He had a lot to think about.

 

*********

 

Coming back inside, Derek took a deep breath. That could have gone better, shaking his head the Alpha walked further into the loft only to come up short when Stiles wasn’t where he left him. Frowning, the man listened carefully to try and piece out where the teen had gone. His head canted to the left, he stared up at the stairs that lead to this bedroom. Oh. Coming over to the stairs he slowly walked up them only to smirk when he saw Stiles laying face down on his bed, he knew the teen had done this as a means of escaping. 

Whether or not Stiles was aware that he was seeking out someplace comforting that was laced with their scents, Derek didn’t know and didn’t dare ask. Coming around, he sat down on the other side of the bed waiting for the teen who had his head buried underneath Derek’s pillow to emerge. He didn’t. Sighing Derek reached over and yanked the pillow off of the teen, Stiles opened his eyes to glare at him.

“Your dad went back to work.”

Stiles snorted. “I could hear that.”

Right. “He-”

“Derek.” Stiles bit out sharper. “I could hear that.”

The Alpha sighed and gave an abrupt nod, he didn’t give the boy any flak when he buried his head once more in the covers. Setting the pillow aside, Derek climbed further onto the bed and laid on his back. Waiting to see if Stiles had anything else to say or if they were going to remain in silence. Derek was going to wait a while to call Scott, or at least long enough to ensure that Stiles was calmer than he was now. Playing twenty questions with a curious pack after the altercation that had just taken place was asking to test whether or not Stiles could change back from his shift. 

“I’m not normal.”

Derek snorted. “He should be used to that by now.”

Stiles gave a small huff of laughter, turning to stare at the Alpha.  Rude.”

Derek shrugged before adding. “It’s the truth. He’s adjusting.”

“Not really, adjusting would be saying alright don’t forget to call me every so often so I don’t think you’re dead. This was him stalking out because he thinks that I can be normal if I try really hard and snap my heels together or some bullshit.” Stiles muttered with a growl tinging his voice.

Derek didn’t bring it to the boy's attention, well aware that it would just stress the teen out more. “He’s your dad, he’s got assumptions on how this all works.”

“No shit,” Stiles muttered as he curled an arm around to lay his cheek on it. “I thought he might be better than this though.”

“It’s a lot to take in.”

Stiles shook his head as Derek tried to defend his dad, any other day Stiles would have loved the notion of Derek doing that but now...Now, it just felt hollow. “He took Scott and the others pretty well.”

“They aren’t his son.” Derek pointed out.

Derek had a good point, but it didn’t lessen the hurt that he felt for his father refusing to face the facts that he was changed. Sighing Stiles buried his face into the crux of his elbow, idly commenting. “You smell funny.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the abrupt change in topic. “Smooth.”

Stiles chuckled, his body shaking with the motion of it. “Well, you do.”

“I don’t, you’re just not used to this.”

Stiles hummed he was sure that played a pretty big role in everything now, but this seemed different to him. “So...Do I smell weird too?”

“To the others no, you have a certain scent to each of them, like how Isaac smells like Oranges to you...To me your scent it’s different.”

Stiles nodded his head into his arm, he knew what that was about and after the confrontation with his dad, he wasn’t prepared to enter into this one. “Do we have to talk about that right now?”

“You brought it up, but no.”

Stiles huffed when Derek pointed out the fact that he’d begun talking about scents. “I brought up the fact that you smell funny, not...That.”

“It’s tied together.”

“Figures.”

Derek smirked at the pouting teen, being so bold as to reply. “You don’t smell like Oranges.”

That got him another series of laughs from the teen, Derek didn’t comment on what the boy smelled like to him. That was for the later conversation, if at all. The Alpha would have been lying, however, if he said that he wasn’t curious to know what he smelled like to Stiles. He supposed he’d just have to be patient and wait for Stiles to bring it up. 

“You don’t smell like Oranges either.”

Good to know, Derek smirked.

 


	32. Taking a moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles and Derek have some time to just talk to one another about some of the things that have been going on. Scott has to deal with anxiety-driven wolves who want nothing more than to return to Derek's place and find out what really happened when the sheriff paid Stiles a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while since the last chapter, writer's block can be a real bitch. Regardless of my slower progress on the story, I hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter.

Derek allowed Stiles some time to cope with what all had gone on with his dad, though he did pull out his phone to update Scott and ask the Alpha keep the Beta’s busy for a while so that Stiles could calm down. Questioning the teen right now was sure to be the catalyst to seeing if Stiles could change back or so he thought at least given how Stiles had unwittingly growled a few times.

Tilting his head to the side, Derek saw how Stiles was resting his face on his arm seemingly staring back at him. The Alpha wasn’t sure if Stiles was actually staring at him or just letting his thoughts wander, but either way, the Alpha commented. “You were wrong earlier.”

Stiles blinked a few times, he’d been deep in thought when Derek suddenly jarred him out of them. His brow furrowed as he caught what the man had said. “Wrong? About what?”

“About me wanting to get rid of you.”

Stiles snorted, shaking his head even if it only surmounted to his cheek rubbing against his arm. “You’ll get tired of me eventually Derek, you don’t like people in your space and frankly I don’t see why that’s a bad thing. There’s a lot of scents and noises that are altogether disconcerting now that I have to filter them out of my stupid brain, I mean it couldn’t pay attention without this stuff and now I have to sort through it? I don’t see that ending particularly well for me.” The teen groused with a deep-set frown.

Derek smirked, the teen wasn’t altogether wrong about his ability or lack thereof for paying attention when there were external stimuli to distract him. His new senses were sure to throw Stiles for a loop, but Derek continued with his earlier train of thought. “I don’t mind the pack being here.”

Stiles lifted his free hand to poke the Alpha. “That was a lie.”

Derek frowned, he hadn’t been lying...Not really. “They're my pack Stiles, I don’t mind them being here.”

Stiles rolled his eyes as he let his hand fall back to the bedspread. “You kick us out all the time.”

“Only when you’re annoying.”

“We’re always annoying.”

The Alpha smirked as the teen called him and his friends out for annoying him. “Then it shouldn’t be that surprising when I do it...But this is different.”

“Cause I’m a death cat or because of the other thing?” Stiles treaded carefully as he steadfastly looked down at his hand which was suddenly all too interesting.

Derek hummed as he looked back up at the ceiling rather than at the teen who seemed also prone to avoiding each other’s gazes. “A bit of both I think.”

Stiles nodded against his arm once more, at least Derek was being honest with him. “I still think that you’ll change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

Rolling his eyes at the Alpha’s refusal to think things through, think about the long term side effects of him living with him Stiles chose to mutter as he glanced up towards Derek. “Don’t come crying to me when I turn into the death cat and start knocking glasses off of the counter.”

“Don’t get on the counter.”

Stiles smirked as the man’s tone changed towards annoyance as the Alpha’s telltale furrowed brows were leveraged at him. “You know it’s strange...When I was trapped like that and I’d do things without knowing it...”

“Licking Isaac?” Derek questioned as he turned his head to stare at him fully.

Stiles blushed a moment before muttering. “Well, no...That I did because it was funny as hell, but the others stuff or at least part of it I did without even knowing it. It’s like zoning out or something and the Bastilli-Or at least I think it’s that part of me is the one that chooses to do it.” Stiles crinkled his brow, letting out a deep sigh. “I sound crazy.”

Derek chuckled at the teen's frustrated reply. “You’re crazy, but not because of that. Sounds a lot like what Laura described...When she wasn’t pulling my leg.”

“Well, I guess there would be some parallels with the whole shifting into an actual animal. Glad to know that turning into a death cat doesn’t make me altogether nuts when I start causing trouble.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the teen, stoutly replying. “You cause trouble when you’re not in your Bastilli form, you caused it long before you had one.”

Stiles glared back Derek who didn’t seem repulsed by it. “Mean...And I vote we call it death cat.”

“Denied.” Derek droned. “You’re not a death cat Stiles.”

“Could be.” The teen shrugged casually. “Seems pretty imposing to me.”

“It is.”

“So it would make sense that it would be a death cat then...Cause it could like kill things.”

Derek sighed. “So can a wolf, you’ve seen how ferocious a wolf can be Stiles.”

The teen nodded, yeah he’d seen plenty of that and other things. God he’d seen too much shit and what was worse was that this was now ‘normal’ to him. “I can’t help that being the first of this kind of creature preludes me being able to name it.”

Derek smirked at the teen's lame attempts to work around his own argument, he was quick to point out. “You didn’t discover the Bastilli Stiles.”

“No.” The teen agreed with a nod. “But I’m the first to become one and I say that it’s a death cat. I got the teeth and claws...Plus the whole porcupine quills of paralyzing deathness.”

“The quills don’t kill people.” The Alpha replied in a bored fashion. “They just paralyze things.”

“People things...People things that then the teeth and claws can investigate.”

Derek glowered back at the smirking teen. “You’re not going to hurt anyone, least of all kill someone. Death cat or not.”

Stiles grinned as if he’d just won something, he had. “You called it a death cat.”

“I know, to make a point.” Derek huffed when the teen latched onto that fact rather than his words. “Just because you’re a Bastilli doesn’t mean that you’re the animal itself. You can think, rationalize things...Whatever instincts you’ve gotten from it can be overridden.”

Stiles sighed as he twisted to lay on his side facing the Alpha werewolf. “No matter what you say, I’m still going to consider it a death cat.”

Derek huffed, he should have known better than to try and reason with the teen when it came to his own shifting ability. Stiles had a way of being so stubborn that it was almost endearing to watch him defend his own actions, Derek steadfastly refused to admit to such things. Choosing instead to roll his eyes at the youth. “Whatever.”

Stiles snickered having gotten the desired response from the man, he knew how to drive Derek up a wall and sure that was mean...But Stiles could talk now and he had to make up for lost time. Having been trapped in his own head for so long he was eager to use his abilities of wry wit to their fullest capabilities. And then, just because it could his brain decided to fuck with him. Frowning Stiles questioned Derek. “What would you have done if I never changed back?”

Derek raised a brow. “Done?”

“Yeah, I mean if I was stuck as a Bastilli for the rest of my life...Then what?”

Derek hadn’t thought about such things, he’d known deep down that there had to be a way to get the teen back to his human form. Granted as it was taking longer and longer he was growing more nervous about it, but that didn’t mean that he’d ‘planned’ for if the situation didn’t change. 

“I mean...Would I have just stayed here cause I don’t think my dad could have kept me alive that long...He lied about my goldfish and he was only in charge of it for two days.”

Derek snorted at the comparison. “I think you could cause a bit more of a disturbance when wanting to be fed compared to a goldfish.”

“Touche...But my point stands.”

“I didn’t have a plan.” Derek freely admitted to the teen. “I knew that there had to be a way to get you back to normal.”

“But I’m the first, there was no guarantee even if we thought it was entirely plausible that I would just turn back like any other shifter.” Stiles couldn’t help but explain because if there was one thing he knew well it was the terror of wondering if he was in fact stuck as a death cat for the rest of his days. 

“I guess I based it off of Laura and my mom,” Derek replied passively. “But even if I was wrong...If we couldn’t find a solution, it wouldn’t have changed your position in the pack. You wouldn’t be able to live with your dad, but it’s not like there’s not plenty of space here.”

Stiles smirked. “You’d let me crash here until I’m old and decrepit?”

Derek snorted. “I doubt you’d reach old age, you get into too much stuff.”

“Hey now!” Stiles shouted in outrage. “Trouble finds me thank you very much, it’s not like I go looking for this shit.”

Derek shrugged, no matter how the teen phrased it, Derek was pretty sure that Stiles was directly responsible to many of the instances that saw him getting into dangerous scenarios. “You would have stayed here.” He settled.

“Huh.” Stiles wasn’t sure what to think about that, on the one hand, it was nice to know that he always had a place. On the other, there was the fact that he couldn’t help but not let go that Derek would have been doing that because they were ‘mates’. Stiles didn’t have the heart to ask that question, it was safe to say that regardless of how it would have come about, Derek wouldn’t have kicked him out. Then out of the blue, he asked. “I wonder how old Bastilli’s get.”

Derek frowned. “Why?”

Stiles shrugged. “Well, if I hadn’t changed back and I was stuck like that...I might outlive y-Never mind I would...I may get into trouble a lot but you go headfirst into battle.”

Derek scowled at the boy's implication. “You’re not funny.”

“I’m hilarious, but the question still stands...For all we know they live to be 1000 years old.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the teen's dramatics being quick to inform him. “I doubt that. Some supernatural creatures can get past the 200 mark, but I doubt Bastilli are one of them.”

Stiles nodded along, he’d heard something similar or maybe he’d read it somewhere...That didn’t matter he supposed. “Should ask Chris.”

“Why?” Derek didn’t see the point in questioning the hunter on such a thing.

“Well you don’t know and I don’t know and I’m curious. Seems pretty simple to ask the hunter who might have some other info on this stuff.”

Derek sighed, he doubted Chris knew how old the Bastilli could get. Derek himself hadn’t found any record of how old the Bastilli were in the book that been provided to him. “You can ask him, but I doubt he knows.” Stiles shrugged as if it didn’t bother him, Derek knew otherwise, the teen wouldn’t stop until he had an answer. He was stubborn that way.

“Hey, Derek?”

The Alpha hummed, waiting for the teen to ask his question.

“Would you have gotten me a scratching post?” Stiles smirked at the Alpha.

Derek glared at the teen, not finding the humor in the what if’s of his transformation or lack thereof that might have seen them living together in a different dynamic. “I would have gotten a spray bottle.”

“Mean.” Stiles pouted at the man’s threat. “That’s just mean and after all we’ve been through together I-”

Derek smirked as he listened to Stiles dictate how cruel it was to mistreat a friend like that, least of all a friend stuck in a giant death cat’s body. It was easy to listen to all the random tangents the man’s mind went through, calming almost, familiar. He’d missed this.

 

*********

 

“We’ve been gone a while, are you sure we can’t head back?” Isaac worried, staring back at Scott.

The Alpha sighed as he dug out his phone, he’d gotten a text from Derek earlier explaining what all had happened with his best friends dad. He wasn’t sure what to think about that, at first, Scott had assumed that the man just needed to think things through. But now, Scott had some reservations about that, the sheriff loved Stiles and although he’d come to understand bits and pieces of what his son being in a pack of wolves meant he hadn’t learned too much about them as a whole. 

Sure the sheriff knew that wolfsbane hurt them and all that, but as far as abilities and how dangerous they could be when someone lost control...Scott could see how that might be hard for the man to relate to his son. Stiles wasn’t the violent sort, then again neither was he. Still, the instinct of their inner animal didn’t care about things like that and when provoked they were dangerous. 

Shaking his head to sort through those thoughts, Scott saw that there were no new messages. Looking back up at the waiting members of his pack, Scott shook his head. “I’m sure they just need some time, his dad didn’t really freak out but he also didn’t jump for joy about Stiles staying with Derek.”

“They didn’t tell him did they?”

Scott frowned at Erica. “Tell him what?”

She rolled her eyes before waving a hand between herself and Boyd. “That they’re mates.”

“Oh.” Scott nodded before shaking his head. “No, I mean I don’t think they did. I can’t see Stiles wanting to have that conversation with his dad so soon. I don’t think Stiles and Derek have even talked about it yet.”

“Makes sense,” Isaac muttered. “It’s awkward as hell and after all that’s happened, I don’t blame him from leaving that out when it comes to explaining things to his dad.”

Scott nodded, explaining mates to the sheriff wouldn’t be easy. Then again, no matter how they phrased it there was a high chance of Derek getting shot, Scott just hoped that it wouldn’t be with a wolfsbane bullet cause he knew the sheriff was a good shot. 

“So what now?” Erica huffed. “We can’t go back even though it’s just them?” She sounded annoyed, not something altogether new.

“Not until Derek says it’s fine, I think he might be trying to talk Stiles down.”

“So he won’t shift.” Erica nodded. “Fine, but what are we supposed to do until he gets him down off of that ledge?”

Scott shrugged. “Anything I suppose.”

Erica rolled her eyes at the vague answer, she should have known better than to ask Scott what to do. He was good in an altercation but in terms of making decisions on a day to day manner, he sucked. 

“We don’t know how long they’ll be, we could go to the diner,” Isaac stated simply. “It’d at least eat up some time and we’d have a good place to wait.”

Erica and Boyd nodded, the blonde wasn’t wrong there. All eyes turned to Scott as if he was the deciding party, he wasn’t but they had a tendency to look his way even if they’d already made up their minds. Scott shrugged, and thus it was decided. 

Scott sent off a quick text to Derek as they wandered the sidewalks of Beacon Hills towards the diner that they all knew and loved. 

 

Scott: Heading to the diner, text me when Stiles is cool.

...

Derek: Fine.

Rolling his eyes at the lack of a response, Scott asked.  Scott: How is he?

...

Derek: Fine.

Scott scowled at his phone, he knew that there was the distinct likely hood that Derek wasn’t doing that to be an ass and was simply not feeling like texting, it was just frustrated to be ignored like this.

“What’s up?” Isaac called to him as he slowed down to walk beside the Alpha. “Are you okay?”

Scott put his phone back in his pocket. “Fine.” Scott sighed when he inadvertently used the same word that had previously made him irritated.

Isaac frowned when he saw Scott frown upon saying the single word, he didn’t know what that was about but he wasn’t going to push the other teen into revealing what was wrong. “So cheeseburger?” He offered up with a smile.

Scott smirked. “Cheeseburger.”

 

*********

 

It had been a few hours, maybe only two or so Stiles thought. He frowned as the teen struggled to orientate himself to the passage of time. He and Derek were still lying on the man’s bed, silent for the most part with only the spatterings of bare comments eating up the silence here or there. In all that time no word was said about his dad or the pack in general, it was more them just shooting the breeze. That was probably why Stiles asked out of the blue.

“Did you ban the others from coming back?” Tilting his head to the side the barest of amounts to glance from the corner of his eye at the older man, Stiles waited for his answer.

Derek smirked but shook his head. “It’s my place.”

“So that’s a yes.” Silence. “Yeah...Thought so.” Stiles smirked to himself, it was both endearing to know the Alpha had outcast the others and somewhat depressing to know that it had been what he really needed at the time. “You can tell them to come back you know.”

“Can I?” The Alpha leveraged back at him passively.

“Well, I don’t think that I’m about to go postal on anyone...I mean, I’m not too keen on bringing up the shitstorm that is everything going on around us but hey, it’s gotta happen sometime right?” Stiles shrugged, wrinkling the covers he was laying on with the movement, the teen smoothed out a small portion with his hand as he added. “Besides they kinda have a right to know what’s going on, they’ve been helping after all.”

Derek snorted. “That doesn’t give them the right to be involved in what goes on here, that’s up to you.”

Stiles smiled as he trailed his fingers across the bedspread. “My dad kinda freaked out a bit and they’re gonna notice that.”

The Alpha hummed, not agreeing or disagreeing to the statement.

“I-I guess that kinda threw me a bit because he’s been so cool about everything else...I mean he was alright before, but then again that was before.” Stiles muttered. “He didn’t know anything, least of all what I’d actually be like.”

“You’re his son, nothing else matters,” Derek commented idly. 

Stiles thought about that a moment, it had always held true between them. His dad might get exasperated by what he got up to. What with him and Scott and then with werewolves when that became a thing. It was strange to consider that this might be the thing to break the man who had up until this point been in his corner. Stiles didn’t truly think it would, though he could rationalize that this had to be a big change for his dad. Then another thought came to mind. “Isaac’s dad didn’t.”

“Isaac’s dad was an asshole.”

Stiles smirked at the tinge of growl that entered Derek’s voice when speaking of the late Lahey. No one really felt all that much remorse about the man’s death, not after hearing some of the horrors that Isaac had been put through. Granted, getting killed by a Kanima had to suck balls but he kinda had it coming. “Fair,” Stiles admitted. “But he didn’t know about the supernatural until it was ripping into him.”

Derek snorted at the teens choice in words. “Maybe, but he wouldn’t have changed his opinion even if he did know. Your dad’s different.” That they both knew, Derek was sure that Stiles was grasping at straws at this point, trying to find some reason to not feel bad if his father turned his back on him. Derek knew otherwise, he couldn’t see Noah doing that to Stiles least of all in the ways that Stiles was no doubt theorizing about. “Give him some time to figure it out,” Derek replied smoothly. “You’re adjusting too.”

“You don’t say.” Stiles rolled his eyes in a sarcastic manner.

“I do.”

Stiles smirked at the Alpha who was sassing him back, staring back at the older man Stiles wondered not for the first time if his attraction to Derek had always been his own. If it hadn’t just been some supernatural bond that he shared with Derek from the get-go, sure human’s weren’t supposed to notice it but then again he’d handled the mountain ash...So that counted right?

“Why are you staring now?” Derek sighed, knowing that the teen’s cogs were turning.

“Thinking.”

Derek snorted as if he hadn't already known that. “About?”

Stiles shook his head, unprepared to talk about such things just yet. He had enough on his plate to not bring up the elephant in the room. “You should tell the others to come on back...Blacklisting them isn’t really going to keep them away for long.” That the teen hoped Derek was well aware of.

“I’m the Alpha.”

“So is Scott...And Erica doesn’t really care unless you do the whole Alpha powers gig on her.” Stiles remarked coolly with a smile, there had been one too many instances of that particular Beta causing a ruckus when she felt the cause too. Stiles was pretty sure this time fit the bill.

Rather than argue about Erica and her penchant for intruding upon others when she felt the timing was right, Derek questioned the teen. “You’re sure?”

Stiles gave a small shouldered shrug. “Not really, but it’s kinda mean to keep them away.”

“That’s up to-”

“I feel like it’s mean,” Stiles interjected. “Besides, keeping them all away isn’t going to make any of this better is it?”

Derek shook his head, no it wouldn’t, but he’d still keep the pack at bay if that was what Stiles felt he needed. “Alright.” He replied even as he phished out his phone to text Scott. 

Stiles smirked as he watched Derek type out a message that was most likely as short and to the point as possible. “You can always send them away again if I get fed up with them.” He teased.

Derek snorted back at him. “No, you wanted them back you have to deal with them.” The Alpha smirked back at him.

“Mean.”

 

**********

 

“UGH! Finally.” Erica threw her hands up in the air the moment that Scott gave a nod from whatever text that he’d just replied too. No sooner than had he looked up than did the girl realize that they’d been given the all-clear.

Scott glowered back at the hasty teen, she had already thrown her trash away and was giving him an impatient glower of her own. It clearly said that he and the others needed to step up the pace. “You know they’ll still be there when we get there right?”

“Move it.” Erica glared. “We’ve been gone for hours, we left him with Derek of all people.”

“Derek’s his mate,” Isaac muttered slyly.

“Please.” Erica rolled her eyes at the blonde. “We both know that didn’t come up in the last few hours.”

No one contradicted that.

“Right...” Isaac sighed. “But I don’t think that Derek was keeping us away for his own benefit.” He glanced towards Scott as if seeking out the Alpha’s help in that.

Scott shrugged. “I don’t think he would, I’m pretty sure he just wanted to give Stiles some time to calm down before we came barging back into the loft to ask a hundred questions.”

Erica crossed her arms over her chest impatiently. “I don’t care why and it’s not a hundred.” She groused. “Just hurry up, I wanna know what really happened.”

Boyd shook his head, drawing his girlfriend out of the diner and towards the waiting vehicle. Isaac and Scott sighed, sending like expressions to each other.

“So we get back...We might get kicked out again.”

Scott huffed. “Depending on how she goes in guns blazing...Yeah.” He nodded. “Possibility is there.”

Isaac smirked as he watched through the window as Erica waved her hands in the air in quick motions while Boyd nodded his head occasionally. “Possibility is pretty damn high.” He pointed, showing Scott what kind of state Erica really was in.

“Great...Think I should text Derek?”

Isaac shook his head. “He’d just tell you to keep out, at least this way she gets it from him.”

“True.” Scott nodded, following after Isaac as they left the diner to head towards the waiting car. “If she asks, we never had this conversation.”

Isaac snorted. “I’m not stupid, she’s already in a mood and I’m not getting in the middle of that.”

“Ditto.”

“Hurry up!”

Sighing Scott pulled out his car keys muttering aloud. “Just get in the car, we’ll be there soon.” As he folded himself into the driver's seat, Scott sent Isaac a passing glance. The Beta smirked before tucking his expression out the window. Scott huffed once more before starting the car. It was going to be a long drive back to Derek’s place and an even longer conversation when they did arrive. Scott couldn’t forsee Derek taking Erica’s questions all that well if Stiles was upset and given what had to have gone down with his dad...Stiles was bound to be upset.

“Scott!”

Right. Driving would be good. “Sorry-Sorry.” Shaking his head the Alpha pulled out of the parking lot and headed back towards the only missing members of their pack. Time for some answers.

 

********

 

Stiles hadn’t been able to give more than a huff of laughter when the front door slammed open violently, it was quickly proceeded by Erica’s shouting for them to get down there because she had no compunctions about going up into Derek’s bedroom.

Stiles snickered at the growl that Derek uttered all while glaring at the staircase. “Remember you’re the one who made her a wolf.”

Derek turned the icy look onto the other teen, but Stiles just smiled back at him. “Go.”

Laughing, Stiles rolled out of the bed and made his way towards the stairs all the while calling down to Erica. “Stop your yelling, we’re coming.”

“Hurry up!”

Sighing, Stiles marched down the stairs, flinching when Erica came to an abrupt halt in front of him from her hasty approach. Stiles gave her a waning look, waiting to see what the other teen had in mind for him. 

Erica stared back at Stiles, a perceptive look on her face despite a furrowed brow being sported and shrouding her intelligent eyes. She knew Stiles, well enough, in fact, to tell that whatever had gone on with his father had been tiring. Exhausting, Erica knew that was more than likely because of what had gone on during the teen's transformation and the aftermath of said event. Still, seeing her friend look so down had Erica uttering in a bitter tone. “You shouldn’t have made us leave.”

Stiles snorted. “I didn’t make you leave, Derek did.”

Erica glared back which saw the boy nodding his head when he was proved to be an idiot. “Fine, but you really wouldn’t have wanted to be here. I didn’t want to be here.” Stiles admitted easily enough, he glanced over the girl's shoulder towards the others. Stiles could tell that Scott wanted to come up and hug him, something altogether Scott like. He appreciated that his friend was waiting, allowing Erica her chance to berate him before crowding him. Stiles felt crowded enough, though he figured that wouldn’t make much sense to the others as to why he felt claustrophobic in his own body. Stiles gave his attention back to Erica when she made a deep sigh, Stiles smiled in the hopes of relieving whatever ailment his present situation was causing her.

Erica shook her head, lunging forward and startling Stiles as she wrapped her arms around him and gave a meaty kiss to his cheek, spreading some of her lipstick onto the boy's skin in the process. 

Stiles smiled at the girl's actions, he knew she’d done that not to for him but for herself. Why Erica got so much joy out of seeing them rub her lipstick off of themselves Stiles would never understand. Regardless he waited for her to pull back before going through the ceremonious expulsion of the lipstick marring his cheek. “You done?” He teased.

“For now.”

Nodding along with the girl's haughty words, Stiles gave a shrug towards Boyd when the boy smiled at him. Lord knew how much lipstick he had to remove from himself during the course of the day if there was one thing that Erica liked it was PDA’s. 

“You cool man?”

Stiles gave a stilted shrug to his best friend, he knew that they all wanted answers, Scott especially. Stiles wasn’t quite sure how to go about explaining what all had gone on, it kinda hurt that he was forced to even state that his father hadn’t taken things well. Stiles was sure that out of everyone’s family his dad and Melissa were the reasonable ones. “Dad didn’t like that I have to stay here.” He intoned simply. “Didn’t understand how that’d be kinda unsafe and all given the whole stress equals death cat scenario...He-He wants me to be normal.”

The group had disgruntled expressions at varying degrees of confusion and annoyance.

“Normal?” Scott shook his head. “What do you mean by that?”

Stiles shrugged. “Not a death cat?” That was as much as Stiles had figured out for himself so he assumed that was what his father had meant.

“Wait...So he wants you to not be a Bastilli?” Isaac gave a confused look towards Stiles. “He knows that you can’t control that right?”

Stiles shrugged. “I think so...But I don’t think he gets that the whole death cat thing isn’t really stable right now.”

“Did you tell him about me?” Scott questioned with a hand motion towards himself.

“I’m pretty sure that I’ve told him at length about the crap that went down with you Scotty.” Stiles retorted with a smirk. “But I think he thinks that I can control this where you couldn’t, kinda rude if you ask me.” Stiles attempted to make his friends feel better about his own situation. It didn’t work.

“What’d he say exactly.” Erica interrogated him, crossing her arms over her chest and taking on an aggressive stance.

Stiles wasn’t so sure that explaining all of this would get them anywhere, but the teen did what she asked. If nothing more than to get it over with, the sooner they moved past this the better. Stiles was kinda tired and they hadn’t even begun to get through the shit that went down while he was still a death cat. Even as he expressed to them what all had gone on with his dad, Stiles inwardly remarked that he hadn’t been wrong. Being a death cat had been simpler.

 


End file.
